AMEX Airline Fee Credit: How to Get the Most Value

Learn how to get full value from your annual AMEX Airline Fee Credit — what to do, what NOT to do, and which cards offer this potentially great perk.

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American Express offers one of the most frustrating perks in the credit card industry: the AMEX Airline Fee Credit. It’s a great deal in theory. American Express will automatically cover the cost of most incidental purchases from a single airline, up to the limit of the credit. Sounds good, right?

Not necessarily. In practice, frequent flyers often have a tough time using the credit to its full value, if at all. It’s a great benefit, but it is not for everyone. I have one card that offers this credit, and it’s typically easy to use. But in this strange year with Covid-19, I haven’t been able to use it at all.

AMEX Cards Offering this Credit

American Express offers four cards with airline fee credits in varying amounts. Three are premium cards, with plenty of perks and high annual fees to match:

• American Express Gold Card ($100 AMEX airline fee credit, $250 annual fee)
• The Platinum Card from American Express ($200 AMEX airline fee credit, $550 annual fee)
• The Business Platinum Card from American Express ($200 AMEX airline fee credit, $595 annual fee)
• Hilton Honors American Express Aspire Card ($250 AMEX airline fee credit, $450 annual fee)

You’ll significantly increase the value calculation for any of these cards when you fully utilize their airline fee credits. It’s much easier to justify a $450 annual fee (with the Hilton Aspire) when up to $250 is credited back to your account each year.

Even More Value in Your First Year

Many benefits of card membership will reset each year on your card’s anniversary date. That is, if you’re approved for the card in April, most of your benefits will reset in April.

Not so with the AMEX Airline Fee Credit. It is a calendar year benefit, meaning it will reset on January 1st of each year. This, in fact, gives you even more value during your first year with a new card.

Let’s say you get the Platinum Card from American Express in September, a card that comes with an annual $200 airline fee credit. You’d have a full $200 to spend by December 31st. On January 1st, the benefit would reset and you’d have another $200 airline fee credit for the following year. You could potentially receive $400 in fee reimbursements during your first year of card membership.

What Qualifies For the Credit?

The AMEX Airline Fee Credit gets unnecessarily complicated once you dig into what it covers and what it doesn’t. First and foremost, the credit does not cover your base ticket price and taxes. It only covers incidental purchases paid to the airline.

Let’s start with what should be reimbursed:

• Seat Fees (including premium seating within the same cabin)
• On-board Food and Beverages
• Ticket Change Fees
• Checked Baggage Fees
• Pet Fees
• Phone Reservation Fees
• In-flight Entertainment
• Airline Lounge Passes and Memberships

American Express does not get specific with what its airline fee credit covers, only what it doesn’t. But the list of what’s not covered is fairly long:

• Airline Tickets
• Mileage Points Purchases
• Mileage Points Transfer Fees
• Gift Cards
• Upgrades
• Duty-Fee Purchases
• Award Ticket Costs (such as taxes and fees)
• Purchases on Partner Airlines
• Fees NOT Billed Directly by the Airline (such as on-board wifi)
• Incidental Fees NOT Separate from Airline Ticket Charges
• Any Purchases Made BEFORE Selecting An Airline (keep reading)

Unless it’s expressly excluded in the terms and conditions, AMEX should credit your incidental airline purchases up to the annual limit. You might need to make a phone call to customer service, but it should work out for you.

You Must Select an Airline

American Express requires its customers to select an airline before they can reap any benefits of the airline fee credit. Choose carefully. It will be the only airline from which your incidental fees will be reimbursed for the rest of the year. Let’s say you’ve chosen JetBlue but will be taking a trip on United. Any incidental fees you incur on United will not be eligible for this card benefit.

You may initially select your airline of choice at any time. But once you’ve selected, you’re stuck with your choice for the rest of the year. American Express allows customers to change their airline selection once each year, but only in January. The easiest way is to log on to your AMEX account. Select the proper card (if you have more than one), and find the airline fee credit under the benefits tab. You can also call customer service to make your selection.

Tip: If you haven’t used your credit at all during the year and want to switch it to another airline, call AMEX customer service and ask for them to make the change. They are typically willing to do so.

The list from which you can select includes most U.S. carriers, but no foreign airlines:

• Alaska
• American
• Delta
• Frontier
• Hawaiian
• JetBlue
• Spirit
• Southwest
• United

Of the ten largest U.S. airlines, only Allegiant Air is left out.

Make a Money-Smart Selection

It’s tempting to choose the airline you fly the most. That’s exactly what I’ve done when choosing Alaska Airlines. I usually fly with my wife and purchase on-board food and drinks. These purchases alone give me the full value of my airline fee credit.

But this year, COVID-19 has thrown the airline industry for a loop. Nearly every U.S. airline (not United) has suspended on-board purchases, at least for domestic flights. There is nothing to buy. Even if I could buy something, Alaska Airlines has upgraded me to either First Class or Premium Class on every flight. It’s a good problem to have, but it’s become very difficult to use the airline fee credit. If it’s still an issue at the beginning of 2021, I might change my airline selection.

If the numbers don’t add up on your preferred airline, consider selecting another airline. Maybe you fly United just a couple of times each year. Not enough to earn status, and you’ve decided against getting one of United’s co-branded credit cards. You could be stuck with baggage fees, on-board food and beverage costs; and if you want more leg room, an Economy Plus seat purchase. But this is where you can get real value from the AMEX Airline Fee Credit. Select United Airlines in your AMEX account, use that card to purchase incidentals from United, and the credits should soon appear in your card account.

Tip: The two biggest ultra low cost carriers — Spirit and Frontier — are perfect selections for the AMEX Airline Fee Credit. These airlines charge extra for nearly everything. So you can select one of these carriers for your airline fee credit. Then purchase your incidentals separately — seats, carry-on bag, checked bags. You should see the credit applied to your AMEX account within four weeks.

Who Should Get a Card with the AMEX Airline Fee Credit?

True road warriors tend to have the most complaints about the AMEX Airline Fee Credit. The most frequent flyers tend to have elite status with their airline. They get free upgrades and don’t pay for on-board food and beverages all that often. They certainly don’t pay for baggage. So unless they are occasionally flying another airline, without status, or they incur change fees now and then, it may be difficult to use the credit. That said, all four of the American Express cards offering the airline fee credit are packed with other great benefits. Even without the credit, I’d still hang onto my Hilton Honors American Express Aspire Card. It offers top-tier Diamond status with Hilton, a $250 resort credit, and a free weekend night at nearly any property in the Hilton family of brands.

I like to think the AMEX Airline Fee Credit is most valuable to people who fly regularly, but don’t often get upgraded. They sit in the in the main cabin and buy a drink, maybe purchase some on-board food. If they need to incur a change fee, the airline fee credit can help soften the blow. And let’s face it: even ONE change fee can use up the entire credit.

But just as easily, the credit works well for occasional travelers. It’s great for for anyone who still pays to check their luggage. One round trip with a single checked bag costs upwards of $70.

Before applying for an AMEX card because of its airline fee credit, run the numbers for your own situation. Also compare the other benefits available on each of the American Express cards which offer it. To get the most from the credit, you also need to be organized enough to keep up with it.

Spend for Next Year

If you’re coming down to the end of the calendar year, remember that a few incidentals can be purchased well ahead of your flight.

Don’t leave money on the table, not if you can help it.

An easy way to use the credit at year’s end is seat selection. Buy yourself some extra legroom (and in many cases, free drinks) on a future flight. I’m not often inclined to spend the extra money on these main cabin seats. But if the credit is expiring December 31st and won’t otherwise be used, why not?

That said, don’t just buy something you wouldn’t normally buy. Remember, you paid for the airline fee credit when you paid the card’s annual fee. Think of these purchases as real money, but money that disappears at the end of the year if it’s not spent.

When You Need to Ask for the Credit

For the AMEX Airline Fee Credit to work properly, airlines need to code their transactions correctly. This is often easier said than done. At the end of this past year, I needed to change a flight and incurred a dreaded change fee. I paid for the change with my Hilton Honors Aspire card, where I still had a $37 airline fee credit remaining.

Nothing.

Several weeks later, I called American Express and explained the issue. It took only a few minutes for the customer service agent to fix the problem.

The message here is to keep an eye on your account, and be sure the credit posts. Give it four full weeks. That’s how long AMEX says it might take, and they won’t do anything before then.

In my experience, small purchases are more likely to trigger the credit. Larger purchases, not as much. The fee credit can also be triggered by purchases that actually should not qualify. FlyerTalk.com will take you down a rabbit hole with its threads on this topic — what triggers the credit, and what no longer works.

Final Thoughts

The AMEX Airline Fee Credit is a great benefit that’s available with four specific American Express cards. But there are too many hoops to jump through, and not enough categories to spend with. I would prefer to see AMEX make it a simple travel credit. Chase, to its credit, offers a $300 straight up travel credit on its premium Chase Sapphire Reserve card. Much better.

But AMEX appears determined to make users select an airline, spend money on extras with that airline, and navigate a gauntlet of restrictions. It sounds like a much better benefit than it turns out to be, for many people. So be sure you’ll get good value from the credit, and good value from any other benefits the American Express card you apply for might have. The credit is like money in the bank, when it actually gets used.