Amex Platinum Tip: Do Your Homework Before Picking a Preferred Airline
I was one of the unfortunates who signed up for the American Express Platinum Card mere weeks before the announcement the partnership with US Airways and Admiral Clubs would be discontinued after March. Some folks were lucky enough to be offered a statement credit to make up for it, not me.
This took away a bit of my enthusiasm for the card, so I put off picking which airline I could get $200 in fees reimbursed until the last minute. I remembered with two days to spare that the credit is based on the calendar year, not renewal date. So if I wanted to get as much remaining value from the card as I could, I needed to take advantage of the option by December 31.
Not realizing I could select an airline through my online account, I called during one of my layovers on the 30th to designate US Airways. Later that day when I went to the US Airways website, I realized I should have done my homework. Buying gift cards through the airlines often shows up like a fee and qualify for the statement credit. (One Mile At A Time has a helpful post on the likelihood of this going through.)
What I didn’t know was US Airways only offers physical gift cards, each with a $15 FedEx shipping fee. So even if those purchases were credited as “feesâ€, I’d lose $60 for the shipping. I wondered if it was too late to switch airlines and called American Express.
It wasn’t a problem, as it appeared the representative the day before hadn’t actually processed my request! (Note: You’ll receive an email from American Express acknowledging your preferred airline. If you haven’t received one, double check that it went through.)
I then chose American Airlines, which has electronic cards with no fees. It took about 4 days, but credit for each of the $50 gift cards showed up on my statement. Phew.
This is a great benefit to take advantage of, just make sure you do a little research beforehand so you can make the most of it!
You can contact AmEx (chat on their site) and request a credit. Got me $100 credit + $100 in reimbursement on AA or US Air. When I called they only offered 6,000 points because the guy was onto me – LOL. Good luck. I have heard the offers are all over the place, from 6,000 pts (yes, that is the lowest I have heard and it was accomplished by me! SO PROUD!) I told him, ” I need to discuss with my wife…. I’ll call back.BYE!!!” to $500 statement credits. (Congrats to those that got it)
AA has not sent my cards for last year still,
(while I “gained 15$ from fee, I lost my free 200$ cards)
so I changed to US
2 x 15 $ fee is fine for 40$ of gift cards
Also U S allows you to combine cards into 1 card, so you do not need to carry 8 cards around
I spoke with them on the phone and yo uhave until the end of Febuary to change your airline for the 200 credit…after that tough luck!
Evan