American Express made waves in the rewards credit card market this year when they completely overhauled their flagship Gold Card. Formerly know as the Premier Rewards Gold card American Express refreshed the card earlier this year and unveiled a ton of new benefits. Notably, Amex added 4X points on dining and supermarket purchases. Amex also added a $10/month dining credit and maintained a $100/year travel credit.
With all of the added benefits now offered by this card American Express raised the annual fee from $195 to $250 a year. While the annual fee is steep, it’s important to remember that the effective annual fee is just $30. However, that math only holds up if card members utilize their dining and airfare credits.
American Express Airline Of Choice Program
Those familiar with travel credits offered by Chase and Citi may not realize that things work a bit differently at American Express. Unlike other card issuers Amex’s annual travel credits are not applied automatically. Card members must first enroll in the annual airfare credit program (Airline of Choice) by selecting a participating airline. After card members select an airline they will receive travel credits for participating purchases with only that airline.
There are two important aspects to the above. First, you read that correctly. You can only receive travel credits from your airline of choice. So, if you select United, but pay for a checked bag on American you will not receive credit. Second, only qualifying purchases, um, qualify. For example, American Airlines does not consider airfare a qualifying purchase. Expanding on that point, below is a list of all of the items which do not qualify as an incidental purchase with American.
Airline tickets, upgrades, mileage points purchases, mileage points transfer fees, gift cards, duty free purchases, and award tickets are not deemed to be incidental fees.
From my experience many of these purchases do in fact qualify, but officially these purchases should not count.
How To Redeem Your Annual Airline Incidental Credits
On important thing to note is that American Express awards credits based on a calendar years. That means if you recently applied for the Amex Gold card you could receive two $100 credits in your first card member year. It also means that you need to act fast if you haven’t yet redeemed your credits.
To see where you stand with your annual credits begin by visiting your American Express Gold card benefits page. On that page are several benefit “tiles” and in the top right corner is your annual travel credit tile.
As you can see above I’ve yet to redeem my $100 airline fee credit this year. Any progress toward the $100 credit should be reflected in the above tile. If you’ve maximized the benefit for the year you will see a message similar to the one below I received from my Platinum card.
As you can see above, the credit resets in Jan 2019 which represents a calendar year rather than a membership year.
If you haven’t received any credits yet and have no travel plans there are a few tricks you can use to maximize the credit this year. For example, on many airlines certain gift card purchases end up qualifying even though they shouldn’t. Also, I’ve received credit for award flight and upgrade co-pays in the past. While I’ve had luck with those items in the past they shouldn’t technically qualify. This flyertalk thread lists reports from other users redeeming airline credits with American Airlines.
Final Thoughts
I really hope everyone who recently opened the American Express Gold card knows how the airline of choice benefit actually works. With other cards most card holders haven’t had to give their annual credits much thought. Usually they just make a purchase and the credit is applied automatically. Things are a bit different with American Express and I hope card members know the different.
By maximizing the Airline of Choice benefit in 2018 and 2019 card members are getting $200 in airline credits and $120 in dining credits within the first year of membership. That helps drop the year 1 effective annual fee of this card to $(70)! Yes, that’s right, if you maximize these benefits American Express will pay you to carry the card for the first year.
So, if you haven’t already, make sure to log on to Amex’s website and select an airline of choice. From there do a little bit of research to determine if gift card purchases qualify with your selected airline. From my experience $50 gift cards from American end up working each year. If you go this route just make sure to buy the gift cards separately. I’ve made the mistake of buying 2 x $50 gift cards in a single $100 purchase which doesn’t work.
Featured Image Courtesy Of American Express
