Trying to figure out how to use your Amex airline fee credit and not sure what counts? We have you covered in this guide for 2026.

One things travel credit cards these days like to do is issue a travel credit. You pay a high annual fee and the credit card gives you back a portion of that fee as a credit for using their card. The credit card company does this for a variety of reasons.

• Using the card for purchases covered with a credit may make it more likely you use the card on other purchases too.
• You might not remember to use the credit (in part or in full) and the breakage helps them pay for the benefit on other cards.
• You might feel you get more value out of the card, justifying its higher annual fee.

With that in mind, American Express is one issuer that hands out these travel credits on some of its cards.

Which Amex cards come with an airline fee credit?

There used to be more cards that had incidental airline fee credits. These days, the credit is limited to the following charge cards:

• American Express Platinum Card, including the Platinum variants for Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, and Charles Schwab ($200 credit each)
• The Business Platinum Card ($200 credit)
• American Express Corporate Platinum Card ($200 credit)
• American Express Corporate Gold Card ($100 credit)

On which airlines does the credit work?

You can earn the incidental airline credit only on the following 7 airlines:

• Alaska Airlines
• American Airlines
• Delta Airlines
• JetBlue Airways
• Southwest Airlines
• United Airlines

Purchases must be made directly with the airline for them to count.

Enroll for the benefit before you do anything else!

Each of the links above will take you to the enrollment screen for each card. Before you get reimbursed for any charge made to your card, you must first select an airline. This can be done online (via the above links) or by calling the number on the back of your card.

Officially, you only get one selection of an airline to start the year, and then you can change it once in the month of January. Your selection in one year should carry into the following year. That said, there has been success if you contact customer service (via chat or calling) to change it again outside of January.

Enroll for the benefit before you make a purchase and make sure you chose the correct airline. This cannot be stressed enough.

What officially works and doesn’t work for the reimbursement?

The credit offered on these cards only covers “incidental fees” and not any charge you make with eligible airlines. Surprisingly, Amex gives very little official guidance on what actually counts. The only official examples they give are checked bags and in-flight refreshments. However, it’s widely accepted that the following charges also count:

• Airport lounge passes or annual memberships
• Change fees
• Phone reservation fees
• Pet fees
• Seat assignment fees

Ultimately, it’s up to the airline to submit the correct information to American Express to identify incidental fee purchases. However, you can contact Amex to inquire about an incidental fee after 8 weeks and the credit didn’t come off.

While American Express is vague about what counts, it is more explicit about what does not count:

• Airline tickets
• Upgrades
• Mileage point purchases
• Mileage points transfer fees
• Gift cards
• Duty free purchases
• Award tickets
• Fees charged prior to selection of a qualifying airline
• Fees charged by a third party and not the airline (e.g. wireless internet or fees charged by airline partners)
• Bundled rates combining airline ticket charges and incidental fees

What unofficially works for the reimbursement?

As of early 2026, United Travel Bank and Delta partial payments no longer work. We’ve already reported on the death of the workaround for United Travel Bank. Delta’s partial payment trick (where you pay for part of the flight with a gift card and the remainder with your credit card) is also no more.

So, what’s left? The best option remaining for “hacking” this benefit towards airline tickets remains using them for cheap Southwest flights. Keep your flight cost at $100 or less and book a Choice fare (not Basic). Book anything that gets the cost to about $100–then cancel it after a day to convert it to travel funds and use it towards what you actually want to fly. Obviously, this is easier if you want to fly the original flight you book anyways, but this trick can be used towards any flight. Reports indicate this technique also works for JetBlue airfare.

Award fees may also count despite the official terms. JetBlue, Southwest, and United all have reports of this technique working as long as the award fees are small enough, which should be the case for these airlines.

Upgrades are also a mixed bag, as what would you call a change from regular economy to extra legroom? They’re both in the economy cabin but airlines are quick to call that an ‘upgrade’.

What should you do if the reimbursement fails to automatically trigger?

After 8 weeks have passed and the credit doesn’t come off automatically, you have the ability to contact Amex to ask for the credit. If you’re calling for a legitimate use of your incidental credit, then there’s not much to be concerned about. Tell the agent about the intent of your purchase, and assuming there are no issues, the agent has the power to issue the credit manually.

Of all the airlines, it seems like Alaska is the biggest culprit for having a legitimate charge but the credit doesn’t come off automatically.

But, if the credit didn’t post and you used it towards an explicitly forbidden use, you might want to consider letting it go. Some people like to say that activity like this is what ruins things for everyone. As if American Express somehow didn’t know already that there are people misusing the benefit beyond its intended means. It could be that they know about it but they have other fish to fry–IT expenses are high and there are other issues that have more impact to their bottom line.

Personally, I think it’s unlikely that this is the case these days. And while it’s true that many people calling about the same thing can get flagged and escalated. But, I prefer to think about this in more personal terms. Why let American Express (or any company for that matter) know that you want reimbursement for something that they say isn’t permissible? That just draws more eyeballs on your account (could you be engaging in other activity they don’t like?) and opens you up to audits or review. Instead, the recommendation would be to let it go.

Now, there are varying degrees of gray area with this benefit, such as the upgrade vs. seat fee debate. Say you purchased extra legroom and the airline considers it an upgrade, but you’re still in economy. You could easily argue it’s just a seat fee. But you calling up Amex to let them know could still backfire. So, the risk is on you to make that determination for yourself. If you have millions of Membership Rewards points, are you willing to risk it all for up to a $200 credit?

American Express is different than most other issuers

This all brings up am important point. American Express is different than most when it comes to travel credits. Most other travel credits out there count towards any travel purchase. Take for example the Chase Sapphire Reserve–that can count for things like Expedia, making it much more practical.

However, American Express has taken the stance that it wants just incidental credits. We find this rather impractical. If you fly an airline frequently, you might have status or their credit card. That can already cover things like lounge access or checked bag fees. Or perhaps you fly first class often, which covers both bag fees and inflight food purchases. So, what are you supposed to do with these incidental travel credits in that case?

You can try flying another airline, but if you’re an American Airlines loyalist, how often are you flying another airline? And you have to determine this at the beginning of the year before you book your travel?

The Amex travel credit feels outdated in this sense, which is why we don’t feel bad about talking about alternative methods to use it. It would be so simple for Amex to just change it to be a true credit for any travel purchase. They already do this with the Hilton Aspire card, which has a true travel credit for any purchase. The technology is there, but then they would lose breakage.

Hope you get a good use out of that Amex travel credit!