Since it’s the start of the New Year, many credit card benefits have reset and savvy credit cardholders are trying to get the most out of their cards. One example is the Amex Platinum and Amex Business Platinum $200 annual airline fee credit, which helps take a bite out of each card’s hefty $895 annual fee.
Last year, I wrote about how putting funds into my United TravelBank triggered the Amex credit, and I’m happy to report that it worked again this year! I bought two $100 United TravelBank credits on January 1st with my American Express Business Platinum card and the credit hit my account on January 3rd (screenshots below).
Last year, when I wrote this article I actually got a lot of hateful comments for writing about this. Basically, according to Amex, the $200 airline incidental fee is meant for “incidental fees, such as checked bags and in-flight refreshments [that] are charged by the airline to your Business Platinum Card.” So from the sounds of it, the United TravelBank purchase shouldn’t trigger the airline credit and some readers thought that by posting this, I was going to let Amex onto a big secret hack that nobody knows about it.
But in reality, I think both Amex and United know that this “trick” works. I think the bigger question is if it will continue to keep working (which may explain why I got a huge number of readers checking out my article from last year). While your experience could vary and Amex could change its policy at anytime, I decided to make the purchase without seeing if the credit worked for others as I figured the absolute worst-case scenario here would be that I added $200 to my United TravelBank, which I am sure I’d be able to use.
Important: Before using your Amex Platinum or Amex Business Platinum to purchase United TravelBank credits, you’ll need to select United as the airline you want the credit applied to (which, for Amex Platinum Business members, you can do here).
Did the UnitedTravel bank trigger your $200 Amex airline fee credit? Let me know!
