If you hold an American Express card that comes with an airline incidental statement credit perk, only a few days remain for you to make any changes.
The final day to change your preferred carrier is January 31. (However, some data points suggest that if you don’t use any of your airline incidental statement credit benefit, you can switch airlines later in the year.)
Which Amex Cards Have the Airline Incidental Credit?
Three American Express cards give members a certain amount of statement credits to use with one airline they can select from a list provided by Amex:
- card_name ($200 annual airline incidental credit)
- card_name ($200 annual airline incidental credit)
- Hilton Honors American Express Aspire Card ($250 annual airline incidental credit. All information about the Hilton Honors American Express Aspire Card has been collected independently by Eye of the Flyer.)
Manual enrollment/activation is required to take advantage of the benefit. Terms apply.
Because each card is a separate product, you can select a different airline for each. For example, you might choose Delta for your card_name and go with United on your card_name.
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Which Airlines are Eligible?
You can choose from:
- Alaska Airlines
- American Airlines
- Delta Air Lines
- Hawaiian Airlines
- JetBlue Airways
- Spirit Airlines
- Southwest Airlines
- United Airlines
Frontier is no longer an eligible airline.
What Purchases are Eligible?
An Amex rep told me the below charges should credit back:
- Airline fee charge billed after airline selection
- Airport lounge day passes and annual memberships
- Change fees
- Checked baggage fees
- Early check-in fees
- In-flight amenity fees (beverages, food, pillows/blankets, and so on)
- In-flight entertainment fees (excluding wireless Internet)
- Overweight/oversize baggage fees
- Pet flight fees
- Phone reservation fees
- Seat assignment fees
- Unaccompanied minor fees
Here’s what is explicitly prohibited:
- Airline tickets
- Award tickets
- Duty–free purchases
- Gift cards
- Mileage points purchases
- Mileage points transfer fees
- Upgrades
That being said, your mileage may vary. Something might code incorrectly and you could be pleasantly surprised. Or vice-versa.
Where Can You Change (or Confirm) Your Selected Airline?
Simply visit AmericanExpress.com/airlinechoice and go from there. Easy peasy.
Which Airline Should You Choose?
Think about how you may use this credit(s) this year.
For example, if you’re a regular Delta flyer who holds a Delta Amex (or two or three or four), have elite status, and rarely pays for checked baggage or onboard beverages — but know you’ll be on an American Airlines trip or two in 2022, consider choosing AA. This way you can buy a day pass to their lounges, enjoy onboard beverages, not worry about checked baggage fees, etc.
My five-year-old is now considered an adult (in the eyes of airlines — and herself 🙂 ), so we selected Delta for our two cards. This helps pay for her guest admission into Sky Clubs. Plus, friends and family sometimes travel with us, so we’re able to pick up their Sky Club fees, too.
Final Approach
The Amex airline incidental credit is a great perk — if you’re able to use it. Just remember to select an airline (or confirm your choice) for this year.
See Rates and Fees; terms apply for the Hilton Honors American Express Aspire Card,
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Oh I remember the days when you could do the gift registry for united lol. That was pretty sweet.
Thanks for the data point, Dave!
I’m not sure where this topic should go but I would like to mention a caveat regarding getting bonus MQM’s via AmEx Reserve threshold spending. I understand the rules to be that you would get 15,000 bonus miles for every $30.000 spend on the card. I mistakenly assumed that the year to date spend figure on the AmEx site would accurately indicate the amount spent. Going through that assumption the figure was over $2000 over the threshold. To my shock, I was told that after the end of the year, I was approximately $300 short of the spend threshold. I was told that the only was to get an accurate spend was to call American Express to get the accurate amount. Lesson learned.
YMMV but I was able to change late in the year last year as long as the credit hadn’t been used yet.