How to use Amex Airline Credit in 2020!
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 8 ก.ค. 2024
- Lets go over how you can effectively cash out your American Express cards airline incidental credit in 2020!
Sign up for the Amex Gold Card Today!
refer.amex.us/KYLESyUOU?xl=cp15
American Express offers an airline incidental on 4 of their cards!
The Gold Card - $100
The Platinum Card - $200
The Business Platinum card - $200
Hilton Aspire Card - $250
This credit can be redeemed on your choice of one of the following airlines, and can be changed one time per year!
Alaska
American
Delta
Frontier
Hawaiian
JetBlue
Spirit
Southwest
United
One amazing benefit to this credit is that it is based on the calendar year not the calendar year that means your first year having the card you can use the credit 2 times! One in the current calendar year and again starting January 1st! This can easily offset any annual fee if you can get value from the credit!
Unfortunately Amex has historically made this credit extremely difficult to use! The only things that “Officially” triggers the credit are
Airline change fees
Airport lounge day passes & annual memberships
Booking fees
Checked baggage fees
In-flight fees and entertainment
Seat assignment fees
Amex has also made very clear that the following things will not trigger the credit!
Airline tickets
Upgrades
Mileage points purchases
Mileage points transfer fees
Gift cards
Duty-free purchases
Award tickets
Historically purchasing gift cards would still unofficially trigger this credit but unfortunately in summer of 2019 this loophole was patched and no longer works!
I personally have had the gold card for 2 years and when my annual fee came around this year I just could not justify the $250 annual fee without a retention offer and I still had my full $100 credit to use! I had to figure out a way to redeem my credit quickly without actually traveling so I could cancel my card without losing free money!
I found some data points online that suggested southwest fares under $100 would trigger the credit, and even though I don’t plan on flying southwest anytime soon I know they have a very lenient cancellation policy and offer a travel voucher that can be redeemed 1 year from the original purchase date of the ticket! However in light of our current "situation" southwest announced that “Any travel funds created because you cancel a flight between March 1 - September 7, 2020, will expire September 7, 2022.” That means you will have over 2 years to use my credit which is very reasonable!
I decided to test my theory and purchased 2 southwest fares that I had no intention of taking totally $98, and it worked a couple days later I saw my credits post to my account and was thrilled!
It was time to get my money back! I went online and within 2 clicks requested a refund in the form of a travel voucher, I had $98 in travel vouchers I can use anytime over the next 2 years! But you can make this credit even more liquid! As southwest's response to our "situation" you can convert any unused travel credits to rapid rewards points Since rapid reward points have no expiration and a average value of 1.5 cpp that means I can now redeem my travel funds anytime in the future to go to any destination! Although this feature is not available yet southwest has assured everyone on there website that it is coming and you will be able to convert any existing travel funds!
If you do choose to do this just know, Although it did work for me I can not guarantee your results! The purchase does code as an airline ticket and is not officially covered under Amex’s acceptable uses of the travel credit so this loophole could very well be patched in the future just like the gift cards were! But as of June 24th 2020 this appears to be working and is the only way to currently “liquidate” the credit that I am aware of!
UPDATE 11/20/20: I recently was approved for the Platinum card and did have the opportunity to test this method again, and it does appear to still work! Here is my data point :)
Purchase date: 11/17/20
Total amount: $78.98
Reimbursement date: 11/19/20
Thanks! Will do this as well!
Is it only for Southwest or for any airline (your thoughts or data)?
This is only currently working on southwest, and one day it may stop working. Just like how gift cards from multiple airlines used to trigger the credit but don’t anymore! I have heard of a few other “creative” ways people have triggered the credit, but you’ll have to search around and be willing to take a larger gamble!
Hey Did the ticket information appeared in your platinum? I did this trick last week and the ticket information Is in my platinum and no credit yet. Maybe stopped working.
I did not see any specific (L3 data) ticket information on my platinum but the transaction does code as an airline ticket! Would you mind sharing more about your data point? Just to confirm did you make sure southwest was selected as your airline beforehand? I’m also not sure if it matters but I always bought my ticket on the desktop website not the app or mobile website!
I just redeemed my travel credit with Amex! I had $200 credit with United airlines but I was able to call customer service and they were able to change it to Southwest. And with Southwest I bought two tickets for $98. I got the reimbursement the day after it posted. Thank you this was definitely needed.
Thank you for sharing, I’m glad I could help!
Nice way to find a way to get value from that airline credit 👍🏼
Really glad you enjoyed it! Hopefully we can work on something together in he future! It also does work with the Chase SW Priority $75 credit which I tested after I made the video! :)
Nice job. Thanks for producing useful content. Hope the channel grows!
Thank you so much for the support! I’m Glad you found it useful! 👍
Watch the entire video to help him out. Although 3:49 and beyond is the meat and potatoes lol Good stuff man.
Thank you so much! Glad you were able to get some value out of it! :) I just cancelled my gold card the other day and got the AF refunded timing worked out pretty good!
that subtle flex at 0:34 lol
dammmmmn 100 views already you growing fast
Thanks bro! Couldn’t do it without the support! 👊
Thank you! I will let you know if it works for me as well. I have AMEX platinum and $200 credit.
Of course definitely let us know! Southwest also did recently enable the feature to convert travel vouchers to RR points which is perfect if you want some value that wont expire!
Did it work
Did this work?
Great tip. Thank you and good luck with your channel. Constructive criticism- Invest in a better mic
Thank you! Hopefully you were able to get value out of this! I really do appreciate the constructive criticism! I definitely will be investing in a better mic i'm currently debating between a shotgun mic or a wireless mic! :)
does it still work?
I have not seen any information that would suggest it doesn’t, but I have not tested it recently
thanks for the video! Also does it still work?
I have not seen any data points that it wouldn’t work and I assume it does but don’t have any hard data! The only thing that wouldn’t work anymore is the ability to convert the vouchers to points since the September deadline has passed!
Thanks for the video man! I have the AMEX platinum and with the 200 dollar credit. Should I book two one way flights that are under lets say 70 dollars each so I can get the full value of the 200 dollars. or do you think I should stay under the 100 dollars to play it safe. Thanks in advance
Just make sure each transaction is under $100 and you should be good! A friend of mine just had 2 $99 one way flights (separate transactions) reimbursed using this method so it does still work :)
So basically just buy Southwest tickets and cancel them? that way you get a travel credit for Southwest but still triggering the airline credit?
Yes, data points suggest anything under $99 will trigger the credit! I suggest finding tickets under $50 just to play it extra safe.
@@KyleSpicklerTravels got it. thanks man! great video btw 😉
has anyone tried this recently since 2 months ago?
Can anyone confirm if this still works in October/November
I will update you with a confirmation shortly, I was just approved for the Platinum card today! But from my research it appears to still work! :)
@@KyleSpicklerTravels Also curious if this still works. Just got approved for platinum as well. I assume doing 2 different transactions at ~$98 would be successful? Also, is SW still allowing you to transfer to RR points?
Yes 2 transactions at $98 should trigger the credit. Although I would recommend doing 1 transaction of the cheapest ticket you can find wait for the credit to trigger than repeat until the credit is used! Unfortunately, you are no longer able to convert new vouchers to RR points, but the flight credit vouchers will not expire for 1 year!
Just following up, I have just added my latest data point to the pinned comment!
Hey man great video, I'm traveling this december and plan on using Southwest and the AMEX gold, do the flights have to be under $100 each?
Thank you! :) Yes each transaction needs to be under $100 so booking multiple 1 way flights instead of a round trip is the easiest way to do this! I also just charged a $79 southwest ticket to my card, so I will update the comments of this video in a couple days when I see the credit post to my account!
@@KyleSpicklerTravels Thanks for the reply! I actually might have plans to take a one way trip for $92 with Southwest which I might not take depending on how things are from here to a couple weeks. To be clear, I would have to select Southwest on the AMEX website, then go to southwest's website and pay for the flight, wait a couple days to receive the credit and then cancel the tickets, convert them to travel vouchers and then to rapid reward points?
Did you apply for the platinum card before or after cancelling the Amex Gold card? Does amex penalize future applications if you cancel one of their cards?
I canceled the gold card as well as 1 other amex card in the past 4 months and was approved for the Platinum this month! I’m not sure if they penalize you or not, but I would assume if you have a lower credit limit they are more likely to give you more credit. Just my thoughts though no hard data to support that claim! I do know amex is a very relationship dependent bank and once you have one card they often don’t even do a hard pull on future applications! So if you already have any sort of relationship with Amex the odds are probably in your favor!
Hey, R u sure that the credit is based on the calendar year and not the membership year? In other words, if I applied today for the platinum I would be able to get 2 $200 credits before the membership fee is charged again?
Yes I am 100% sure it even shows online after the credit is used that it resets in January 2021! Makes the card a no brainer in the first year if you get value from the credits! Your also able to use the $50 semi-annual Saks credit 3 times before the renewal AF hits!
Is it still working?
I have only heard positive feedback so far, so I assume it still works but don’t have any hard data points to confirm. I would recommend doing one ~$50 flight wait until it triggers than use the rest of the credit! You will no longer be able to convert the vouchers into RR Points but can still get the voucher for a future flight!
Is this still working?
I just got approved for the Platinum card so I will be able to give an updated confirmation soon! But from my research it does appear to still work!
@@KyleSpicklerTravels Same here Kyle just got approved today for the Amex Plat...keep us updated if this still works.
Just following up, I have just added my latest data point to the pinned comment!