It’s the time of year when people suddenly realize they haven’t used much (or any) of the annual $200 airline incidental credit benefit that comes with The Platinum Card® from American Express, The Business Platinum Card® from American Express, and Hilton Honors Aspire American Express Card. (Aspire cardholders can earn up to $250 back each year.)
And they suddenly start to panic.
Fear not, my friend. If you selected Delta as your preferred airline for the incidental credit benefit, here’s an option that can easily earn you back some (or all!) of that $200 (or $250). Even if you don’t want to plan a trip right now. Or leave your house.
Take a Trip (or Earn a Delta eCredit) from a Pay With Miles Booking!
Pay With Miles is a feature available exclusively to Delta SkyMiles® American Express Card members.
Cardholders can apply SkyMiles toward eligible flight purchases at a rate of one cent per point. SkyMiles are redeemable in blocks of 5,000. For example, 5,000 SkyMiles knocks $50 off any remaining cash balance. 10,000 SkyMiles is worth $100, and so on.
Pay With Miles tickets earn MQM and MQS. Any remaining cash balance earns MQD and redeemable SkyMiles.
Plus, Pay With Miles is a great (and easy) way to help you get back that $200 airline credit.
But how?
How Pay With Miles Tickets Count Toward the $200 Amex Platinum Credit
Delta Pay With Miles tickets are considered award activity. And award ticket cash balances generally trigger the airline incidental credit.
Here’s how I booked (and canceled) a Delta Pay With Miles trip — and scored an eCredit.
For my blogging example trip, I decided to keep the fare low. (I didn’t want to get burned too much if the Pay With Miles trip didn’t work for the airline incidental credit.) I searched for something in the $150-ish range.
I found a $149.20 Main Cabin roundtrip between Los Angeles (LAX) and Las Vegas (LAS). Perfect! (Remember, if you plan to go the Book-a-Pay-With-Miles-Trip-and-Cancel-It route, your departure and destination cities really don’t matter; you’re not taking the trip.)
I applied 5,000 SkyMiles ($50 off the fare). My outstanding cash balance was $99.20. I charged that to my Amex Business Platinum card.
I decided to wait more than 24 hours to cancel my trip. Why? Because I didn’t want the 5,000 SkyMiles redeposited back into my account, nor did I want the $99.20 refunded to my Amex card. So, I set an iPhone alarm for about 30 hours later.
I opened my Fly Delta app the next day and canceled my trip.
The $99.20 charge was reimbursed to my Amex account a few days later. As my five-year-old daughter says, “Easy peasy, lemon squeezy!”
I now have a $149.20 Delta eCredit to use sometime before the end of 2023. Plus, the credit will earn MQD, MQS, MQD, and redeemable SkyMiles once its trip is completed. Knowing me, I’ll probably use it to take a trip between LAX and Vegas.
Keep Track of Your eCredits
Here’s where Delta IT fails customers — intentionally or otherwise. (I lean towards the former in this instance.)
Pay With Miles ticket eCredits aren’t visible in neither your Fly Delta app nor your Delta.com eCredits and Certificates wallet.
But Delta ticketing representatives can see them. This means you must call Delta to book a flight using your Pay With Miles eCredit(s) or ask for the credit number and amount. The simplest way is to record the eCredit number once you cancel the trip. (I keep mine in an Evernote file.) You should be able to manually apply it when booking a trip later.
Final Approach
Delta Pay With Miles cashback balances once again trigger the airline incidental fee reimbursement perk. Even if you don’t need to plan a trip now, you can book a Pay With Miles ticket, charge the cash balance to your eligible Amex card, cancel the reservation a few days later, and receive a Delta eCredit.
Just remember to 1) take advantage of the credit before December 31, 2022 and 2) use your eCredit next year.
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When you pay with miles, is it not a good idea to keep that amount in increments of $50 as I think Delta rounds up to next mileage increment.
If you’re paying the entire fare in miles, correct. That’s why I always pay a little in cash.
This is very helpful to know and similar to the process with SouthWest Airlines. I do have one point I’d like clarification on.
When you choose to cancel the flight, I assume Delta refunds the portion of the fare you paid with SkyMiles back to your Delta SkyMiles account; and the cash portion of the fare is refunded as the flight credit, correct?
Nope — everything is converted to an eCredit.
Will need to try this as the $200 goes unused now.. We used to be able to spend it in the Sky CLub Lounges but not anymore…Another perk that got taken away by AMex… also miss the Auto-towing credit yearly!!!!!
If you bring a guest into the SkyClub and are charged (soon to be) $50, that $50 counts as an incidental and receives the credit. I’m sure you knew this but just in case. 🙂
Good post, Chris. Thanks!
Thank you!
Normally not a fan of gatekeeping, but by publishing this, you put this technique at risk. Understand the intention of bringing your readers the best deals, but please think about the greater ecosystem at play here.
This has been known for several years…
If I booked the flight for $300, used 5,000 miles for partial payment, would I then choose the Delta e-credit refund option, or refund original payment option?
eCredit
Mine went through! It took 5 days before it showed up on my Amex Platinum card. Thanks, Chris!
Of course!
But, don’t forget to wait the 24+ hours before doing the refund.
There’s a similar trick on AA. Whether you are booking a flight, whether cash or award, at check-out, AA allows you to “earn extra miles” on the trip for $X. Essentially, you’re buying miles. If you exercise this option during the booking process, the $X counts as fare and Amex will NOT give you a statement credit. HOWEVER, once the trip is booked, you can “manage my booking” and add the “earn extra miles”. If you exercise this option AFTER the booking is completed, the $X counts as an airline incidental fee and Amex will give you a statement credit. Hope this helps someone.
Followed the steps and cancelled after 30 hours … charge posted on my AmEx Plat Biz Dec 1 but still not credited with the airline credit … should I be worried
I did the same thing. Charged to my account on 11/30 after I read this for flight on 12/13. See the charge on my statements, but no credit yet. I have not canceled the flights yet. Any thoughts?
I’d give it another couple of days. It’s “only” been about five business days.
Also charged $180 and 5000 miles after reading the article on Nov 30 . I received I believe the tax credit gir $14 on the miles but not the $180 credit back to Amex . I hope this works!
Thanks Chris,
I followed your instructions , though I booked close to the 200… Lol . I got 147 back in credit. you guys are great. Appreciate your blog.
Yay! Thanks!
My credit came through today! Thank you for the great tip!
Great!
Didn’t work for me! Never got the credit (been over a week now).
Amex airline credits have taken a while (at least, in my experience) —- at least, more than before. And you selected Delta as your airline of choice for the credit, right?