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2015 means a new $200 airline fee credit for anyone with an American Express Platinum card. This is one of the biggest benefits of the card, and one you can turn into $200 worth of airline tickets.

I have a Platinum Business card that I opened in September 2013.

  • In 2013, I bought $200 worth of American Airlines gift cards and was rebated $200 on my statement.
  • In 2014, I bought $200 worth of American Airlines gift cards and was rebated $200 on my statement.
  • This week, I bought $200 worth of Delta gift cards and was rebated $200 on my statement.

American Express makes you pick one airline on which to receive your airline fee credit, so to change mine from 2014 to 2015, I had to go to this page and make my new selection.

The American Express Platinum airline fee reimbursement is only meant to reimburse airline fees not ticket purchases or gift card purchases. However, the decision of what to reimburse is left to a computer algorithm, so some gift card purchases are reimbursed. The reports of FlyerTalkers should be your guide, but your experience may vary.

This FlyerTalk thread explains how to turn the $200 airline fee credit into $200 worth of Delta gift cards. The process is different for gift cards from each airline, so check out this post where I link to threads on each airline.

According to the FlyerTalk thread, only $50 Delta gift cards were being reimbursed by American Express, so I bought four in one $200 purchase on January 8, and my $200 was reimbursed on January 10.

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You have to wait 72 hours after purchase to redeem a Delta gift card. About 73 hours after my purchase, I purchased a $121.60 one way flight from Greensboro to Tampa in March with my gift cards. I still have $78.40 worth of Delta gift cards.

The FlyerTalk thread also explains that you can only use three forms of payment on a single Delta purchase. That means you can use three $50 gift cards like I did or two plus a credit card to pay the amount greater than $100.

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Further Reading

Keep in mind that with the Citi Prestige® Card your annual airline fee credit is $250, that this credit does apply to ticket purchases, and that this credit applies to all airlines instead of just the one you select. My review of the Citi Prestige® Card.

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