I Know Where My American Express $200 Airline Incidental Credit is (Likely) Going Next Year

When Delta Air Lines announced a slew of unpopular entrance policy changes to its Sky Club airport lounges, it became pretty clear to me where I’ll use one of my American Express card benefits for about the next eight years.

Quick Primer: $200 Airline Incidental Credit

Both The Platinum Card® from American Express and The Business Platinum Card® from American Express feature this perk: earn up to $200 in statement credits each calendar year on eligible incidental fees spent with one participating airline selected through Amex. (Enrollment required. Terms apply.)

As luck would have it, “airport lounge day passes and annual memberships” are apparently considered eligible incidental fees.

“But Don’t You Have Two Delta Reserve Cards or Something?”

I hold the Delta SkyMiles® Reserve Business American Express Card. That comes with complimentary Delta Sky Club entrance for me when flying a same-day Delta-marketed or -operated flight. Mrs. Carley holds the Delta SkyMiles® Reserve American Express Card. She, too, gets free admission to Sky Clubs when flying Delta. Not to mention, both cards come with two (2) Sky Club guest passes each anniversary year. (Terms apply to all benefits. Effective February 1, 2025, Reserve Card Members will receive 15 Visits per year to the Delta Sky Club; to earn an unlimited number of Visits each year starting on February 1, 2025, the total eligible purchases on the Card must equal $75,000 or more between January 1, 2024, and December 31, 2024, and each calendar year thereafter. Once all 15 Visits have been used, Eligible Card Members may purchase additional Delta Sky Club Visits (including Grab and Go) at a per-Visit rate of $50 per person using the Card.)

“So, what’s the big deal?” you may ask. “What are you griping about this time, Carley? Who else travels with you?”

I present to you Exhibit A.

That little girl is my five-year-old. She loves Delta Sky Clubs. They serve almost all of her favorite food groups, most of which are pictured above. (Although, she has one complaint: “They need plain pasta for kids! But not spaghetti. Because I don’t like that. But they need the squiggly kind of pasta. With a little butter and not too much salt. And ice cream.”)

She’s also considered a paying adult in Airline World.

Because Delta generously rolled over Sky Club guest passes during the past several years, we didn’t really need to worry about paying for our daughter’s admission into the lounges.

But Mrs. Carley and I will be on the hook for our little traveler’s Sky Club admission fees after January 31, 2023. That’s when our guest passes expire. After that, we’ll have four guest passes between the two of us: two on Mrs. C’s Reserve card and two on mine.

We’ll burn through those fairly quickly. Most of our trips start at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), where there are two Sky Clubs.

Then we often connect through another Delta hub. That’s another guest pass if we visit the Sky Club. (The guest passes permit single-visit entries; they’re not day passes.)

A single roundtrip can burn all four of our guest passes.

And that’s where The Platinum Card® from American Express and The Business Platinum Card® from American Express will come in handy.

Between those two cards, I’ll have $400 in airline incidental fees to guest my kid into Sky Clubs. (Amex doesn’t allow authorized cardholders under 13.) That’s eight Sky Club visits total ($50 a pop starting February 2, 2023). That’ll pretty much cover us for the year. (We might not even hit that. Plus, there are other ways to use the airline incidental credit.)

So, that’s my family’s plan.

Final Approach

Given that my five-year-old daughter’s Sky Club entrance fees were taken care of with Delta Amex Reserve guest passes, we’re soon going to pay out of pocket for her to access the lounges. Delta is jacking up Sky Club guest admission price to $50 in February. But because of the Platinum Cards’ respective $400 airline incidental credits, we’ll have something to fall back on once we we use the Reserve passes.

For rates and fees of The Platinum Card® from American Express, please visit this link.
For rates and fees of The Business Platinum Card® from American Express, please visit this link.
For rates and fees of the Delta SkyMiles® Reserve American Express Card, please visit this link.
For rates and fees of the Delta SkyMiles® Reserve Business American Express Card, please visit this link.