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If you have a Platinum card with an airline incidental statement credit perk, you have only a few days left to make any changes.
And if you hold a Business flavor, you may want to make sure that your choice from last year is still selected.
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.)
(Terms apply to American Express benefits and offers. Enrollment may be required for select American Express benefits and offers. Visit americanexpress.com to learn more.)Which American Express Cards Have the Airline Incidental Credit?
Two 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:
- American Express Platinum Card®: $200 annual airline incidental credit
- The Business Platinum Card® from American Express:$200 annual airline incidental credit
If you’re not yet a cardholder and get a Platinum Card later in the year, make your selection then for the rest of the year. It’s not like you’re shut out from using the benefit 🙂 .
We’ve heard reports about Amex Business Platinum members’ pre-existing choices being deleted. So, if you hold that card, make sure to double-check your account. (Mine wasn’t affected.)
Speaking of which, fellow Amex Business Platinum members: your airline of choice doubles as your 35% Pay With Points carrier.
(The Hilton Honors American Express Aspire Card no longer features an airline incidental credit benefit. In its place is an annual $200 Flight Credit: earn up to $50 in statement credits each quarter for a total of up to $200 back each year on flight purchases made directly with an airline or through amextravel.com. All information about the Hilton Honors American Express Aspire Card was collected independently by Eye of the Flyer and neither provided nor reviewed by the card issuer.)
Manual enrollment/activation is required to use 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 personal/consumer Amex Platinum and United for your Amex Business Platinum.
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. (From what we hear, Frontier may no longer be an airline pretty soon…)
Southwest is actually a viable choice now — considering it charges for luggage and seat buy-ups.
What Purchases are Eligible?
An Amex rep told me these 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?
Visit AmericanExpress.com/airlinechoice for the personal Platinum.
Go to https://global.americanexpress.com/card-benefits/detail/airline-bonus/business-platinum for the business. (Thanks, Sam!)
Do You Earn Points?
Yes!
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 SkyMiles® American Express Card (or two or three or four), has elite status, and rarely pays for checked baggage or onboard beverages — but know you’ll be on an American Airlines trip or two in 2026, 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 eight-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 when we run out of guest passes on our Delta SkyMiles® Reserve American Express Cards. 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.
For rates and fees of the American Express Platinum Card®, 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 Hilton Honors American Express Aspire Card, please visit this link
Advertiser Disclosure: Eye of the Flyer, a division of Chatterbox Entertainment, Inc., is part of an affiliate sales network and and may earn compensation when a customer clicks on a link, when an application is approved, or when an account is opened. This relationship may impact how and where links appear on this site. This site does not include all financial companies or all available financial offers. Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed, or approved by any of these entities. Some links on this page are affiliate or referral links. We may receive a commission or referral bonus for purchases or successful applications made during shopping sessions or signups initiated from clicking those links.
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.
Does anyone know if the credit would trigger for expired miles buy-back from AA?
The link above worked for my AMX Platinum, but I had to use the following for AMX Business Platinum. The 35% points rebate is worth many times $200!
FYI
https://global.americanexpress.com/card-benefits/detail/airline-bonus/business-platinum
As I usually buy-up to FC on business travel and fly FC on personal travel, the coupon-book approach to this did not make much sense for me. I’d rather have hard, cold, Travelbank cash for travel. As a part of my ‘conscious decoupling’ (thanks, Gwyneth) with Delta, I used my $200 2026 AMEX Platinum on 4 x $50 United Airlines Travelbank credits, around January 2. Confirming to all that this worked, and I am set for the year on this benefit. No muss, no fuss. Just bought (part) of a ticket with the Travelbank funds and thanks, AMEX.
The experience last year on UA (50 segments) was that they are at worst a mediocre airline with some bright spots emerging. My experience with DL (since about 2022) has been that of a once great product that has overpriced itself and is descending in quality in soft product and middling in hard.
One more year on my DL Diamond ‘coast out’ and I plan to use the last crop of Medallion® choice benefits on the AMEX bill credits. I *might* keep the AMEX DL Reserve and DL Platinum cards to get automatic Silver, but as my travel habits get me free bags, may reconsider. I am DONE with GUCs, RUPs, and the SkyMiles Shuffle. I now prefer UA, but will fly DL when it’s cheaper or schedule mandates.