American Express offers a ton of great benefits on many of their premium credit card products. However, not all benefits are created the same. The airline fee credit benefit, on the face of it, sounds like a simple credit that you’d get when you book a flight ticket. However, Amex only offers these credits on what it deems as incidental purchases on qualifying US based airlines. At the start of the new year, I took stock of which cards in my wallet have the benefit and decided to use up the credits right out of the gate.
AIRLINE FEE CREDITs FOR 2023
Three of my cards carry the Airline Fee Credit benefit. The personal Platinum card, the business Platinum card and the Hilton Aspire card. Overall, I had about $650 in credits to take care of. $200 on the personal Platinum card, $200 on the business Platinum card and $250 on the Hilton Aspire card.
After looking up data points on Flyertalk, I decided to once again choose United airlines as my option for these credits. I headed over to United and started making purchases on United’s Travel Bank.
I selected the credits and then waited for about 24 hours. After 24 hours, I started loading my United Travel Bank in increments of $100. For the $250 airline fee credit on the Hilton Aspire card, I did three installments of $100, $100 and $50. After I made the purchases on January 1, 2023, all of my credits across different cards had already posted by January 7, 2023.
THE PUNDIT’S MANTRA
Over the last five years or so, this has been a lucrative method for using up your airline fee credit benefit. Things can always change, so I always keep a point to set a reminder for early in the year to take care of all my airline fee credits. It gives me the option to use these funds to buy flight tickets in the future.
Before you load up your United Travel Bank balance, please make sure that you’ve selected United as your preferred airline for the credit in 2023.
Also, if you sign up for the personal Platinum card or the business Platinum card now, or the Hilton Aspire card, you can double dip your airline fee credit benefit. These benefits are calendar year based. Even if you opt to cancel in January 2024, you can still use your credits once for 2023 and then again in January 2023 before you cancel.
How do you plan to use your airline fee credit for 2023? Tell us in the comments section.
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