The Platinum Card® from American Express is one of the top premium travel credit cards on the market, but also one of the most expensive. The card’s annual fee is substantially higher than other cards, but it also comes with an extensive list of benefits like airport lounge access, Hilton Honors and Marriott Bonvoy hotel elite status, major bonus earning on flights booked with airlines, and more.
While the card’s fee may seem like a shocker at first, it’s actually not so bad when you take a look at the multiple statement credits offered, including an airline incidental credit of up to $200. Many travelers often aren’t sure how to take advantage of the airline incidental credit and what it can cover. After all, it doesn’t let you cover paid plane tickets but does let you cover other fees incurred from an airline — whether inflight or at the airport.
In this article, you’ll finally get clarity as to what exactly the Amex Platinum card’s airline incidental credit is and your best options for redeeming your card’s $200 annual credit. After all, what use is a benefit if you don’t know how to use it, right?
Amex Platinum Card – Snapshot
Hot Tip: Check to see if you’re eligible for a welcome offer of up to 150,000 points with the Amex Platinum card! (The current public offer is 80,000 points.)
What Is the Amex Platinum Card’s Airline Incidental Credit?
Both the Amex Platinum card and The Business Platinum Card® from American Express include an up to $200 airline incidental fee credit. This credit, according to American Express, is to be used to cover inflight expenses on your selected airline. Some of the items American Express lists as eligible for reimbursement include inflight refreshments and checked bag fees. Unfortunately, things like airline tickets, gift cards, and points or miles purchases aren’t eligible for reimbursement.
Here’s what the terms and conditions have to say:
“Incidental airline fees charged prior to selection of a qualifying airline are not eligible for statement credits. Airline tickets, upgrades, mileage points purchases, mileage points transfer fees, gift cards, duty free purchases, and award tickets are not deemed to be incidental fees. The airline must submit the charge under the appropriate merchant code, industry code, or required service or product identifier for the charge to be recognized as an incidental air travel fee.”
Once you’ve selected your airline, you can simply charge these expenses to your Amex Platinum card and you’ll automatically be reimbursed in the form of a statement credit within 4 weeks of the charge posting to your account.
Hot Tip: You receive the airline incidental once per calendar year. The credit is dispersed on January 1st of the year and doesn’t roll over.
Selecting an Airline for Your Airline Incidental Credit
Unlike the Chase Sapphire Reserve®‘s $300 travel credit, you’re limited to using your Amex Platinum card’s incidental fee credit on a single airline. You can select your airline when you receive your card and change it once per year thereafter. However, we at Upgraded Points have had luck changing the airline more than once when chatting (nicely) with an American Express representative.
You can pick from the following airlines:
- Alaska Airlines
- American Airlines
- Delta Air Lines
- Frontier Airlines
- Hawaiian Airlines
- JetBlue Airways
- Spirit Airlines
- Southwest Airlines
- United Airlines
You must select an airline before you can use the airline incidental credit. Charges made to your account before selecting an airline are not eligible for reimbursement, so select your airline as soon as you receive your Amex Platinum card and have a trip booked.
Thankfully, selecting your Amex Platinum card airline choice is easy. Just head over to the American Express website, log in and select your Amex Platinum card (should you have more than 1 Amex card).
Click on the Rewards & Benefits tab on the bar at the top of the screen. And then click on the Benefits tab.
Image Credit: American Express
Here, you’ll see the balance of your Airline Fee Credit — how much you’ve used and how much you have left.
Image Credit: American Express
Scroll down the page and you’ll see a list of benefits included with your Amex Platinum card. There will be an option labeled $200 Airline Fee Credit. Click on the Learn More button and, from there, you can select your airline choice using the drop-down menu at the center of the screen.
Image Credit: American Express
The Best Ways To Use Your Airline Incidental Fee Credit
As mentioned earlier, the Amex Platinum card’s airline incidental fee credit cannot be used towards plane tickets, points purchases, or gift cards. There’s no doubt that this is frustrating, but thankfully, there are still plenty of great ways that you can spend the credit over the year.
Here are our favorite ways of utilizing the flight credit. We’ve split this section up into 2 parts: official and unofficial ways to redeem the incidental fee credit.
Official Ways To Redeem the Incidental Fee Credit
You can use your airline incidental fee credit to purchase day passes to the American Airlines Admirals Club. Image Credit: American Airlines
Airport Lounge Day Passes and Annual Memberships
While the Amex Platinum card includes extensive lounge access, it doesn’t include access to all of the U.S. carrier’s lounges. You can use your Amex Platinum card’s credit to buy day passes to:
Just remember that you have to select the applicable airline for the lounge charge to be covered. So if you select Delta as your selected airline, your charges to the Admirals Club won’t be covered by your incidental fees.
Hot Tip: If you purchase an annual lounge membership with your Amex Platinum card that costs more than $200, you’ll be credited the entirety of the incidental fee credit at once. So in this case, you can think of it as a $200 discount on your lounge membership of choice.
Further, note that Amex Platinum cardmembers do not receive complimentary guest access at Delta Sky Clubs. However, guest access can be purchased for $29 per person (versus $50 for a standard day pass). If you purchase Delta Sky Club guest access and Delta is selected as your Amex Platinum card’s airline, you will be reimbursed for their entry fee.
Change Fees
Changing a trip’s date can be expensive, but your Amex Platinum card’s incidental fee credit will cover the itinerary change fee. Note that the incidental fee will not likely cover the airfare difference as this is often charged like a plane ticket.
Hot Tip: Want more information on airline change fees? Learn how to avoid airline change fees in our dedicated article.
Checked Baggage Fees
Plan on checking a bag but it isn’t included with your ticket? Just charge it to your Amex Platinum card. This is especially helpful if you’ve selected a low-cost carrier, like Spirit or Frontier, as your airline choice as these carriers generally charge more for baggage. Just remember that the incidental fee credit will only cover baggage fees on your selected airline.
Inflight Entertainment Fees
The incidental fee credit will cover inflight entertainment fees like TV, movies, and tablet rentals charged directly by the airline. A good example of this is renting an Alaska Airlines entertainment tablet inflight. The airline charges a fee to rent these in economy class.
Unfortunately, this does not cover inflight internet as this is generally billed by a third party. However, we have heard of United inflight entertainment being reimbursed as it is generally charged by United directly. Proceed with caution though as there’s no guarantee it will be reimbursed.
Inflight Amenities (Food, Drink, Headphones, Etc.)
Most other inflight purchases are covered, too. Think amenities like headphones, blankets on budget carriers, food, and drink. These are almost always charged by the airline and will automatically be reimbursed by your Amex Platinum card’s incidental fee credit.
Seat Selection Fees
Seat selection fees are another great way to redeem your airline incidental fee credit. You can use this when flying low-cost carriers or are flying on a basic economy fare that doesn’t include free seat selection. Note that this does include things like Even More Space seating on JetBlue and Economy Plus on United Airlines.
Pet Flight Fees
If you’re taking a furry companion with you, use your Amex Platinum card’s incidental credit to cover the pet fee. This can take out a nice chunk of your reimbursement too — for example, JetBlue charges $125 per one-way flight.
Hot Tip: Some airlines are better than others when flying with Fido. Explore our data study on the best airlines for traveling with your pet.
Phone Booking Fees
You can usually avoid these by booking online, but there may be instances where you need to call to book an award ticket or a flight with special routing. If you can’t get the agent to waive this fee, your Amex Platinum card’s incidental fee credit will cover it.
Priority Boarding
Priority boarding purchases will work on virtually all airlines. This can be especially valuable when flying Southwest Airlines as you’ll get first dibs on the best seats. Again, just remember that the incidental fees will only cover priority boarding fees on your selected airline.
Unofficial Ways To Redeem the Incidental Fee Credit
The methods below are ways that either our staff has tried or seen work for other travelers. Proceed with caution. There’s no guarantee that these will work for you. While we try and keep this section as up-to-date as possible, these things can change on a dime and we can’t be held liable for a charge not being reimbursed.
Admirals Club Food or Drink Purchases
A number of American Airlines Admirals Club locations have premium food and drink available for purchase. These purchases have been reimbursed from American Express as they’re billed directly from American Airlines.
Unfortunately, we don’t have data for purchases at other lounges at this time. Again, proceed with caution.
Delta Airfare Purchased Partially With a Gift Card
There are reports of Delta tickets purchased partially with a gift card being reimbursed by American Express. This is because when the purchase processes, it will add “additional collection” to the transaction instead of listing an airline route like most airfare purchases.
This means that American Express will see the transaction as if it was some sort of add-on or other inflight expense. However, this is not officially supported, and American Express may choose to not honor your incidental credit for this purchase.
Sub-$99 Airfare on Select Airlines
We’ve seen reports of sub-$99 fares on Delta, Southwest, and JetBlue being reimbursed by the incidental fee credit. But again, this is very much something you should try at your own risk as the purchase will code as airfare.
Spirit Saver$ Club and Discount Den (Frontier Airlines) Memberships
Spirit Airlines and Frontier Airlines both have members-only discount clubs under the names Spirit Saver$ Club and Discount Den respectively. These programs provide access to discounted tickets and include other perks, but have an annual fee.
We’ve seen reports of both Spirit Saver$ Club and Discount Den memberships being reimbursed by American Express. Definitely keep this in mind if you’re a frequent ultra-low-cost carrier as it can save you a nice sum of money as you travel throughout the year.
$5.60 TSA Passenger Security Fee on Award Tickets
Our team has had the $5.60 TSA Passenger Security fee reimbursed on multiple award tickets in the past.
Purchases That Do Not Trigger the Airline Incidental Credit
Now that you have a full list of things that do (or might) trigger the airline incidental fee credit, here’s a quick look at the things that don’t trigger this credit.
Award Taxes and Fees
Aside from the $5.60 TSA Security Fee mentioned above, our team has not had luck having other award fees reimbursed. This is likely because of the fact that these purchases code as airfare when posted to your American Express card.
Airline Gift Card Purchases
Airline gift card purchases were a long-time favorite for redeeming the airline incidental fee credit. However, as of this summer, our team has had no luck getting these reimbursed.
Class of Service Upgrades
Unfortunately, cabin upgrades are not eligible for reimbursement.
Inflight Wi-Fi
As mentioned earlier, inflight Wi-Fi generally does not trigger the incidental fee credit as it’s billed by a third party like Gogo or Panasonic. However, we’ve seen reports of United Airlines Wi-Fi purchases being reimbursed as United does bill Wi-Fi purchases on its own, or if purchased through the airline application prior to your flight.
What if My Purchase Isn’t Automatically Reimbursed?
While American Express states that it will reimburse eligible charges within 4 weeks, some charges make it past American Express’ system. If you’re not reimbursed for an eligible charge, you can either call the number on the back of your card or use American Express’s live chat service to request reimbursement.
Final Thoughts
While the Amex Platinum card’s airline incidental fee credit is limited when compared to travel credits offered by other premium credit cards, it still offers a ton of value. When you use the methods listed above, you’ll not only save money, but also have a better travel experience with extra checked bags, lounge access, and more.
How do you spend your Amex Platinum card’s airline incidental fee credit? Let us know in the comments below!
The information regarding the Corporate Platinum Card® by American Express, Hilton Honors American Express Aspire Card, The Platinum Card® from American Express Exclusively for Goldman Sachs, and The Platinum Card® from American Express Exclusively for Morgan Stanley was independently collected by Upgraded Points and not provided nor reviewed by the issuer.
For rates and fees of The Platinum Card® from American Express, click here.
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