Every December the American Express Facebook forums FLOOD with people asking the same question, “How can I use my $200/$250 airline incidental credit on XXX Airlines???”. Not too long ago you were able to use this credit for gift cards on Delta, American, and United Airlines, as long as they were purchased in $50 increments. Unfortunately starting in 2020 it has become rather difficult to use for almost all airlines except for United with their United TravelBank, however this article is going to cover what should code as an “incidental” and a workaround that I personally use for Delta!
What are incidentals?
Most airlines qualify incidentals as the following:
- Checked baggage fees
- Overweight/oversize baggage fees
- Change fees
- Phone reservation fees
- Pet flight fees
- Airport lounge day passes and annual memberships
- Seat assignment fees
- Inflight amenity fees (beverages, food, pillows/blankets, etc.)
- Inflight entertainment fees (excluding wireless internet)
- Airline lounge food and beverage purchases
All of these can be used to chip away at your incidentals, however for folks like myself who already get waived baggage fees, waived changed fees, and free in flight drinks… it becomes a challenge! Let’s look at some little known ways to use your credits by airline!
Delta Airlines
Previously it was incredibly easy to use your $200(Amex Platinum) or $250(Hilton Aspire) incidental credit with Delta.. buy either 4 or 5 $50 gift cards. Unfortunately now that is no longer possible however, I was able to discover a workaround that still works!
- Purchase a $50 Delta eGift Card
- You must wait 24 hours to use the gift card
- Find any non basic flight(Main, Delta Comfort, First class) for approximately $249(Amex Platinum) or $299(Hilton Aspire) that is at least several months out.
- It must be less than either of those amounts in order to code as “incidental”
- Book the flight using a split payment method of the $50 gift card + the Amex Platinum or Hilton Aspire
- Essentially you are looking for the total billed to your card to be either $199(Amex Platinum) or $249(Hilton Aspire)
- Wait approximately 7 business days for the credit to post on your account.
- Cancel your flight for an eCredit that will expire 12 months from date of purchase.
- You will receive an eCredit for the full amount(Gift card + Purchase)
- Use this eCredit to book any flight you want 🙂
This workaround has been working for me for the past few years without any issues! As airfare prices continue to climb, the $50 you spend on a gift card would certainly be spent anyways… Spend $50 to pick up a free $150 or $200 is an easy decision!
United Airlines
United Airlines TravelBank still works as of writing this, however they have been known to shut it off for extended periods of time. The easiest way is to fund two $100 transactions to the account which will then post as incidental a few days later. As I personally only fly Delta, I am less confident in this working however several of my peers have stated it still works.
All Other Airlines
Unfortunately for all other airlines, you a essentially limited to the incidentals mentioned above, however mileage may vary with things like “Big Front Seat” on Spirit or upgrades on other airlines.
Keep in mind that you MUST select your airline of choice once you open your credit card. You are only able to have one airline selected per card to incur incidentals against and make any chances to your selection every January. If no change to your airline of choice is made, it will default to the previous choice.
What do you plan to use your incidental credit for? Have you used either one of these “hacks” to code airfare as incidental? Leave a comment below!
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