United Discontinues Gift Registry, the Easiest Option for Redeeming Amex Credits

Several top American Express cards offer an annual airline fee credit, giving you a fixed allowance for certain airline-related purchases, which officially include things like checked bag fees, inflight purchases and flight change fees.

Credits are available with a handful of cards, and break down as follows:

• Hilton Honors Aspire Card from American Express (up to $250)
• The Business Platinum Card® from American Express (up to $200)
• The Platinum Card® from American Express (up to $200)
• American Express® Gold Card (up to $100)

While they aren’t officially permitted, many customers even have success using credits to offset the cost of gift card purchases, though doing so may require jumping through some hoops. Recently, American Airlines gift cards stopped triggering a credit, though, and now United’s gift registry — which had been down for “maintenance” since 2017 — is permanently off the table as well.

Reported by Doctor of Credit (and confirmed on United’s site), the airline has now officially pulled its gift registry, saying “As we keep evolving the digital experience for our travelers, we’ve decided to discontinue the united.com gift registry program. Although you’ll no longer be able to create a new registry or add to your existing one, you can still book travel using the TravelBank balance linked to your current registry until your balance expires.”

The TravelBank itself isn’t going anywhere, however, and any credit you’ve built up will be available until it expires. United even offers a dedicated product for funding this account — the United TravelBank Card — which still remains available. Meanwhile, if you’re hoping to redeem credits for flights, rather than officially supported purchases, your options are now limited to Delta — with a notable caveat — and Southwest.