The Points Guy believes that credit cards can transform lives, helping you leverage everyday spending for cash back or travel experiences that might otherwise be out of reach. That's why we publish a variety of editorial content and card comparisons: to help you find a great card to turn your goals into reality.
Our site may earn compensation when a customer clicks on a link, when an application is approved, or when an account is opened with our partners, and this may impact how or where these products appear. While we don't cover all available credit cards, our editorial team creates and maintains all of the analysis of these cards, and our content is not influenced nor subject to review by any credit card company, bank or partner prior to (or after) publication. Please view our advertising policy and product review methodology for more information.
Advertiser disclosure
The Points Guy believes that credit cards can transform lives, helping you leverage everyday spending for cash back or travel experiences that might otherwise be out of reach. That's why we publish a variety of editorial content and card comparisons: to help you find a great card to turn your goals into reality.
Our site may earn compensation when a customer clicks on a link, when an application is approved, or when an account is opened with our partners, and this may impact how or where these products appear. While we don't cover all available credit cards, our editorial team creates and maintains all of the analysis of these cards, and our content is not influenced nor subject to review by any credit card company, bank or partner prior to (or after) publication. Please view our advertising policy and product review methodology for more information.
Guides
The Amex Platinum's $200 airline fee credit is showing its age — here’s how I’d fix it
Matt Moffitt is a contributing editor and expert in getting the most out of credit cards and points (he carries at least 25 cards in his wallet at any given time). Originally from Sydney, Australia, he won the Green Card Lottery and lived in Austin, Texas for 10 years before relocating to Spain in 2025.
July 3, 2026 • 9 min read
The cards we feature here are from partners who compensate us when you are approved through our site, and this may impact how or where these products appear. We don't cover all available credit cards, but our analysis, reviews, and opinions are entirely from our editorial team. Terms apply to the offers listed on this page. Please view our advertising policy and product review methodology for more information.Editorial disclaimer: Opinions expressed here are the author's alone, not those of any bank, credit card issuer, airline or hotel chain, and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of these entities.
Comments
By commenting, you agree to our Community Guidelines to help create a positive space for conversation. The responses below are not provided or commissioned by the bank advertiser, our partners, or The Points Guy (“TPG”). They have not been reviewed, approved, or otherwise endorsed by any of these parties. All responses are submitted by individual contributors, and neither the bank advertiser, our partners, nor TPG are responsible for ensuring that all posts and/or questions are answered.
Related stories
Quick summary
The article examines the limitations of a premium travel card's annual airline fee credit, which requires cardholders to select one airline per year for incidental fee reimbursement.
Changing travel habits can leave cardholders with unused credits if their preferred airline changes mid-year, as switching is only allowed annually.
Recent enforcement of terms has ended popular unofficial methods for maximizing the credit, making its restrictions more apparent.
The article suggests several ways the benefit could be modernized, including allowing more frequent airline changes, expanding eligible purchases or converting it into a broader travel credit.
What to consider
The credit only applies to incidental fees with one pre-selected airline per calendar year, and changes to the selection are restricted to an annual window.
Qualifying purchases typically exclude airfare, upgrades, award taxes and fees, gift cards and mileage purchases, limiting flexibility.
Recent changes have made some previously effective workarounds unreliable, further narrowing how the credit can be used.
What you'll miss from the article
A detailed discussion of potential improvements to the benefit and practical examples of how its current structure may not align with modern travel patterns.
Generated by AI with support from our editorial team.
Earlier this year, I used part of my 2026 credit toward a United Economy Plus seat assignment on a flight to Mexico.
United Economy Plus seats. ZACH HONIG/THE POINTS GUY
A few months later, though, my travel habits had changed.
I now have a large balance of Atmos Rewards points, and I recently status matched to oneworld Sapphire (through Royal Jordanian). As a result, I’m much more likely to fly American Airlines than United for the rest of the year.
That wouldn’t normally be a problem. However, when I contacted American Express to ask about switching my selected airline from United to AA mid-year, I was told I’d need to wait until the next January selection window.
So here I am with roughly $130 of airline fee credit left to use — and an airline selection that no longer reflects how I’m actually traveling.
That’s what made me realize the Amex airline fee credit is starting to show its age.
My experience: When the airline selection rule backfired
The airline fee credit is built on a simple assumption: Cardmembers can pick one airline at the beginning of the year and stick with it for the next 12 months. But travel rarely works that neatly.
Award availability, elite status opportunities and changing travel plans can completely alter which airline makes the most sense over the course of a year.
I'm now flying American Airlines more frequently. ZACH GRIFF/THE POINTS GUY
When I selected United, it was a logical choice. I had successfully used the credit with United in prior years, and I expected to continue flying the airline regularly.
Since then, though, my travel priorities have shifted. Between my Atmos Rewards balance and my oneworld Sapphire status, American Airlines and its partners, such as Iberia and Qatar Airways, have become a much bigger part of my travel plans.
If my selected airline were AA today, I’d have no trouble using the remaining credit. Main Cabin Extra and preferred seat assignments and inflight purchases would quickly take care of the balance.
Instead, the credit is tied to a decision I made months ago under completely different circumstances.
The specifics of my situation may be unique, but I suspect the underlying problem isn't. Few travelers know exactly how they'll be flying in January for the rest of the year.
The credit is intended for incidental purchases such as checked bags, seat assignments, lounge day passes and inflight purchases. Airfare, upgrades, award taxes and fees, gift cards and mileage purchases generally don't qualify.
The credit does not reimburse upgrades to premium economy. BENJI STAWSKI/THE POINTS GUY
Checked bag fees have become significantly more expensive over the past several years, which arguably makes the credit easier for some travelers to use.
But the travelers loyal to a single airline often receive free bags and other perks through elite status or a cobranded airline credit card.
Why the credit became harder to use in 2026
For years, many cardmembers found unofficial ways to make the airline fee credit more useful than the terms suggested.
One of the most popular examples was United TravelBank. While TravelBank cash purchases were never listed as an eligible use of the credit, they frequently triggered statement credits for many cardmembers in prior years.
That changed in February, when reports from the points-and-miles community suggested that TravelBank purchases were no longer reliably triggering the credit.
Around the same time, reports also emerged that some Delta-related workarounds had stopped working.
10'000 HOURS/GETTY IMAGES
I’m less interested in whether they were ever intended to work. American Express has long been clear that airfare, gift cards and similar purchases aren’t eligible. What’s more revealing is why those workarounds became so popular.
TravelBank wasn’t attractive because people wanted stored-value balances with United. It was attractive because it effectively turned a restrictive incidental-fee credit into something that felt more like a general travel credit.
When a workaround disappears, it doesn’t create the underlying problem — it simply exposes it.
American Express has become better at enforcing the terms; the terms themselves, however, haven’t evolved very much.
Why this benefit no longer matches how some Platinum cardmembers travel
If you’re loyal to a single airline, regularly pay incidental fees and know your travel plans well in advance, you can absolutely get full value from it.
D3SIGN/GETTY IMAGES
The issue is some of us redeem points across multiple airline alliances, book based on award availability, chase elite status opportunities or simply choose whichever airline offers the best combination of schedule, price and convenience.
Travelers most likely to pay a premium annual fee are also among the least likely to incur the specific charges this credit reimburses.
Why Amex may be reluctant to change it
There are business reasons why benefits like this exist.
In the credit card industry, “breakage” refers to benefits that cardmembers don’t fully use. When a credit is restrictive, some cardmembers won’t use it to its full extent, reducing the issuer’s overall cost.
A broad travel credit typically has less breakage than a narrowly defined airline incidental fee credit. That’s one reason issuers may prefer more restrictive benefits.
But there's a balance to strike.
American Express refreshed the Platinum Card last September, yet the airline fee credit remained largely untouched. To me, that felt like a missed opportunity to modernize the benefit.
4 ways American Express could modernize this benefit
Fortunately, fixing this benefit wouldn’t necessarily require American Express to spend more money.
Allow airline changes throughout the year
If Amex wants to keep the airline-specific model, it should consider making it more flexible.
Even allowing one airline change per quarter would solve many of the problems I experienced this year.
Travel habits can change quickly. A premium travel card should acknowledge that reality.
Expand eligible airline purchases
Alternatively, Amex could keep the current structure but broaden the list of qualifying purchases.
Airfare would be the most obvious addition, but upgrades and award taxes and fees would also make the benefit more useful.
ERIC ROSEN/THE POINTS GUY
The company already offers a more flexible airline credit structure on the Hilton Honors American Express Aspire Card. Each calendar quarter, cardmembers receive up to $50 in statement credits to use on flight purchases made directly with an airline, on amextravel.com or through the Amex Travel App™.
This credit clearly shows that Amex has the infrastructure to support a different approach.
Convert it into an Amex Travel credit
If Amex could change only one thing, this would be my suggestion.
American Express has spent years encouraging cardmembers to engage with its travel ecosystem. So why not align the airline fee credit with that broader strategy?
Instead of limiting the benefit to airline incidentals, Amex could turn it into a general Amex Travel credit that works on flights, hotels, vacation rentals, rental cars or cruises booked through the platform.
AMERICAN EXPRESS
We’ve already seen another issuer take this approach.
Amex could take a similar approach by allowing cardmembers to stack a broader travel credit with the biannual Fine Hotels + Resorts, The Hotel Collection or Airbnb Luxe credit.
Cardmembers receive up to $600 in lodging statement credits each calendar year (up to $300 biannually) for prepaid bookings with Fine Hotels + Resorts, The Hotel Collection or Airbnb Luxe properties through American Express Travel® or the Amex Travel App™. THC and Airbnb Luxe require a minimum two-night stay, and beginning Jan. 1, 2027, FHR will also require a minimum two-night stay.
That would make the benefit easier to use while simultaneously encouraging more bookings through Amex Travel.
Some might prefer the traditional airline incidental fee credit; others might choose an Amex Travel credit instead.
Another possibility would be a lounge-focused credit that helps cover Centurion Lounge guest fees, which currently cost $50 per adult (unless you spend $75,000 on your card in a calendar year).
Centurion Lounge in Atlanta. ZACH GRIFF/THE POINTS GUY
Giving cardmembers a choice would likely improve satisfaction without significantly changing the overall cost of the benefit.
The problem isn't that I don't have travel planned. It's that the travel I have planned no longer matches the airline I selected months ago.
The disappearance of popular workarounds like United TravelBank didn’t create the airline fee credit’s shortcomings — it just made them harder to ignore.
The airline fee credit isn't a bad benefit. It just hasn't kept pace with the way many Platinum cardmembers actually travel.
American Express doesn’t necessarily need to spend more money on this benefit. But if it wants the credit to remain relevant, it needs to make it fit the way people actually travel today.
By commenting, you agree to our Community Guidelines to help create a positive space for conversation. The responses below are not provided or commissioned by the bank advertiser, our partners, or The Points Guy (“TPG”). They have not been reviewed, approved, or otherwise endorsed by any of these parties. All responses are submitted by individual contributors, and neither the bank advertiser, our partners, nor TPG are responsible for ensuring that all posts and/or questions are answered.
