Data Point: trying to use the Amex airline fee reimbursement with Delta
As I've mentioned before, Amex has been slowly devaluing and eliminating many of the Platinum and Gold cards' perks. Specifically, they closed the well-publicized loophole that allowed you to spend your annual Airline Fee Reimbursement buying Delta gift cards.
This was a popular and relatively easy way to offset part of the card's annual fee so there has been lots of uproar online about this change. This FlyerTalk thread is tracking and aggregating people's individual experiences trying to use the credit on other types of Delta purchases. It seems like the consensus for the new way to spend the credit is this: buy a plane ticket that's less than $250, apply a $50 gift card to the purchase, and ta-da! the remainder of the ticket counts as a fee, and is reimbursed by Amex.
I read through the summary and it seemed like our upcoming flight from Burlington to New York City would be a perfect place to try it.
After the checkout process, it split the charges for each ticket into separate invoices. My invoice received reimbursement for the Mileage Booster and the remainder of my ticket MINUS the $50 gift card (-$23.30). My husband's ticket was charged in full and received no reimbursement despite me buying a single itinerary for the two of us on Delta.com.
I dug through the FlyerTalk forum and at least one other person had the same thing happen to them, so this is likely not a fluke. I guess the lesson here is that the ideal scenario is one where a single ticket ends up with $200 or less as a remainder charged to your card (after the gift card is applied).
But what if you don't have this type of trip planned in the near future? FlyerTalk folks are talking about a tweak to this gift card trick whereby you purchase a fully-refundable ticket from Delta for a trip you don't intend to take, get the reimbursement from Amex, and then cancel the flight so you end up with a e-Credit in your Delta account. Several people have reported success with this, but I've not tried it myself.
This was a popular and relatively easy way to offset part of the card's annual fee so there has been lots of uproar online about this change. This FlyerTalk thread is tracking and aggregating people's individual experiences trying to use the credit on other types of Delta purchases. It seems like the consensus for the new way to spend the credit is this: buy a plane ticket that's less than $250, apply a $50 gift card to the purchase, and ta-da! the remainder of the ticket counts as a fee, and is reimbursed by Amex.
I read through the summary and it seemed like our upcoming flight from Burlington to New York City would be a perfect place to try it.
- First, I bought a $50 Delta gift certificate from their desktop website (don't use the mobile site!)
- Then I waited 72 hours for the certificate to go live
- I chose a single itinerary on Delta.com for the two people ($73.30 per person)
- Just to test, I added a Mileage Booster of 1,000 miles to just my ticket ($29)
- I applied the gift certificate during the checkout process, bringing my total from $175.60 to $125.60
After the checkout process, it split the charges for each ticket into separate invoices. My invoice received reimbursement for the Mileage Booster and the remainder of my ticket MINUS the $50 gift card (-$23.30). My husband's ticket was charged in full and received no reimbursement despite me buying a single itinerary for the two of us on Delta.com.
I dug through the FlyerTalk forum and at least one other person had the same thing happen to them, so this is likely not a fluke. I guess the lesson here is that the ideal scenario is one where a single ticket ends up with $200 or less as a remainder charged to your card (after the gift card is applied).
But what if you don't have this type of trip planned in the near future? FlyerTalk folks are talking about a tweak to this gift card trick whereby you purchase a fully-refundable ticket from Delta for a trip you don't intend to take, get the reimbursement from Amex, and then cancel the flight so you end up with a e-Credit in your Delta account. Several people have reported success with this, but I've not tried it myself.
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