Updated on December 14, 2023
Using Amex Airline Fee Credit for Airline e-Gift Certificates
There is a $200 & $100 airline fee credit offered by American Express for the Platinum, Business Platinum, and Premier Rewards Gold. By now, you have probably heard that many are getting reimbursed for electronic gift certificates for certain airlines such as American Airlines. Not long ago many bloggers were posting that it stopped working but it was only temporary.
UPDATE: This is no longer working according to Flyertalk (but they have removed all posts mentioning it) and other sources. Just buy AA gift cards instead.
The post below provides details on using the airline credit for Amazon.com gift cards. If you are interested in using the airline credit for airline gift cards, see this post for tips and tricks on using for various airline gift cards.
Will Amazon.com e-Gift Cards Get Reimbursed?
It appears electronic gift cards for Amazon.com are now getting reimbursed as well…as well as other things. You can follow the instructions on Flyertalk and use the United gift registry. Or you can use an easier method: buy through United's MileagePlus X shopping app.
One downside of the gift registry method is that it requires a 24 hour waiting period but the easier method (explained below) does not have any waiting period.
How to get e-Gift Cards Reimbursed
Hat Tip to two readers who tried both methods and provided screen shots. Here's how:
- Step 1: Important: First you must select United as your airline for the current calendar year: Do it online here Premier Rewards Gold or Platinum / Business Platinum or call customer service.
- Step 2: Download United's MileagePlus X (iOS) (Android) application on your smartphone
- Step 3: Search ONLINE MERCHANTS and select AMAZON
- Step 4: Select PAY NOW on AMAZON
- Step 5: Enter desired amount (up to $100 for the PRG and $200 for Plat / Biz Plat). I suggest doing $50 at a time just in case, but this reader just did $200 in one go and it worked.
- 7/8/16 Update: Still working. It took 2 business days for the credit.
- 1/21/16 Update: Please stick with $50 increments! Still working. It took 4 days.
- 12/28/15 Update: Still works as of 12/25/15.
- Step 6: Enter your American Express credit card details
- Step 7: Complete checkout
- Step 8: Fee credit should be reimbursed ~5 business days after the charge has posted
How to Use the Amazon e-Gift Cards
Here are the terms of the Amazon.com e-Gift Cards:
After you purchase the gift card, the gift card # should display. There are 2 ways to add your gift card to your Amazon account. 1. Click this link to add your gift card through Amazon's website, or 2) click “copy number” on the bottom of the app which will launch the Amazon App where you can paste in the gift card #. I also earned 2x miles per dollar spent!
Does Trick Work for Citi Prestige® or Chase Sapphire Reserve?
No – trick does not work. I tried on both cards and did not get reimbursed.
It did not work for me. I purchased a $200 Amazon gift card per your instructions. It posted on 11/29/15. It’s now 9 days later and no credit reimbursed.
Really? Did mine on 11/30 and just got the statement credit today.
Good for you! Maybe I’ll wait another few days to conclude that it doesn’t work.
Sean; the GC $200 ?
Is it working now??
Yes per reports on FT
Thank you!
It worked on my side. Purchased two gift cards x $100 on Dec 1st and got both reimbursed on Dec 11th
Purchased dec 10 for $100 with gold premier (i choose united before), nothing happen yet.
I used the app for 2 $50 cards and no results yet. Bought them on the Dec 18th.
Has anyone got this to work recently?
I selected United as my airline but I wanted check it would work before I did it?
Do we need to change the airline every calendar to get this working?
Stays set as the previous year’s selection unless you want to change airlines.
if I have chosen United and purchased amazon gift card in Dec, can I purchase another amazon gift card in Jan and get that reimbursed as well?
Absolutely. Beginning Jan 1 it starts a new calendar year and credit resets to $200 again.
If I do this before the 31st and again on jan 1st ,can I cancel before my jan 18th annual date, will I still have to pay the annual fee?TIA
Yes if you do it after the statement end where you see the credit and within 30 days of the annual fee hit date. To play it safe tho you may be better off waiting an extra month of so to cancel and the AF will be refused prorated.
Somebody posted this on another site..Can you confirm is this is true?
“To buy any gift cards including amazon requires you to be a premier milesplus member (united)”
Does “Premier” mean you have to have the big card with the $475 yearly membership fee?I think i read they get $200 a yr in airline credit,I only get $100 credit a yr..Thanks
Can you please post the link? I have not heard of such a requirement.
Heres the link..Its post #38
http://slickdeals.net/f/8404229-reminder-to-amex-premier-gold-reward-card-holders-only-3-days-left-to-get-100-airline-credit-for-this-year?v=1
Thanks for posting this! I tried this on Dec 17th and bought 2 $50 Amazon gift cards. 7 days later on Dec 24th, I got credited for both transactions!
Bought another $100 Amazon gift card yesterday before this year is over. Just follow the directions exactly and you should be fine.
Is there any reason this wouldn’t work for the Citi Prestige airline credit?
Will this work for the Citi Prestige airline credit too?
Will be testing this soon n will report back.
Thank you for explaining the process for buying Amazon GC using MileagePlus X. Super helpful! I purchased $175 Amazon GC using MileagePlus X on December 19th. I had $127.60 left on my Amex Platinum Airline Fee reimbursement account and this exact amount was credited on December 28th.
The MileagePlus X Amazon gift card (2x $100 credits) worked as of 25 Dec 15. THANK YOU! Great way to be reimbursed since we shop Amazon all the time.
Transaction on 8 dec… No reimbursement till the date
Was it >$100?
No….i made for exact 100$
Try $50 increments. I’ll be updating the post w a screen print showing successful reimbursements for $50 purchases done on 12/25/15
done ….as per your opinion ….lets c 🙂
Yups ….it worked ….Thanks
Hi Sean I got the airline credits on united, downloaded the app and enrolled on the app but it said I had 0 miles. How do I link my AmEx card credits to the app account?
Doesn’t work that way. The miles/points reflected in MPX app represents your United account balance, unrelated to Amex MR pts.
Does this work for other gift cards on the Mileage Plus X app like for example Landry’s? Or is it only for Amazon?
I haven’t tried it myself other than Amazon Gc but the FT thread suggests it works so long as the charge gets coded correctly (so yes).
Charge was made Dec 30 and credited January 2. Will this count as a credit for 2015 or 2016? Thank you!
2015
Does this still work? Can I do it for smaller denominations than $50?
Just worked for me! For the Gold Rewards. Two $50 purchases. Thanks so much!
Just worked for me for the Amex Platinum. On 1/15 I went through the United Mileage Plus X app and bought 4 $50 Amazon gift cards to hit the $200 credit. Today, 5 days later on 1/21, all of the credits posted.
Did a $10 payment and it posted yesterday – took 6 days.
I did the same thing txn. done on 20th.. Still waiting for it to post.. The CS says it is 2-4 weeks but most of my credits with Amex have been super fast.. Not sure here and it shows as MPX* AMAZON.COM.. The details show United.. let us see
Got my first $50 credit.. Credit posted in 7 days.. Waiting for the other and my wife’s ones..
Did 2 times $50 amazon gift card purchases. No credit yet. Bought on 22nd Jan.
if you followed all the steps i’d give it some more time.
Followed the steps and purchased 4 $50 increment gift cards on 1/18/2016 and it still has not posted credit to my account to date (1/28/16). I guess I’ll wait but even it doesn’t post the $200 in amazon gift cards will not go to waste. And I guess I can try it again later on if it never does post.
Bought 2 amaxon gifts. Took 6 days for credits to show up.
Bought two amazon gift cards for $100 each on Feb 1st. Still haven’t gotten reimbursed. Is this still working if I buy two for $100 each? I’d prefer to just get reimbursed for this and not have to re-buy 4 gift cards for $50 each.
Gotta be $50’s. But before you do that, give it a week first, you may get lucky with $100’s
It worked! Took about 9 days. Thanks!
I tried selecting United as airline for my Premier Rewards Gold Card. So I called customer service to set United as airline. They said United is not in their Airline list 🙁 Please suggest.
What options did they give you? Did you try calling back to speak with another rep?
They gave me so many options including Air Canada, Air France, Delta, Virgin America, Virgin Atlantic etc., I didn’t try calling again. Would you suggest that? Could that be a mistake what the rep told me?
I just tried doing it online now and it worked. Now will have to download the MPX app 🙂
Great! Let me know if it works when you do it.
Sometimes you just get a rep who doesn’t know what they are talking about, so you just hang up and call again.
I just read that when you go ahead and buy your airline ticket you can only apply one gift certificate per ticket …is that true?
United Airlines that is
Irrelevant to the post. The idea is to buy Amazon gcs and not United gcs.
Thank you for this post. I bought a $50 Amazon gift card on the app on the 16th and a credit appeared on the 24th. Now for the other $50!
Does anyone know if this only works for Amazon GC purchases? Could I purchase a different type of GC (like Gap, Banana Republic, etc.) through the MPX app and still trigger the $200 airline credit from the Amex Platinum?
Yes pretty much anything you buy through MPX. My advice is to cap the purchase at $50 per transaction.
Does this still work? and if yes, should I do all the $50 charges in the same day or wait a day in between?
$50 max per order. Doesn’t matter if you spread them out or not. I usually do 2 X $50 on one day and another set the following day.
Are gift card redemptions currently working as a reimbursement through MPX with AMEX Plat?
Yes $50 increments
Is it just me or MPX app is not working? I downloaded app and tried to log in with my united mileage plus info, but it kept saying “system is disabled.”
Does anyone know if this still work for Amazon gift Card? I purchased $20 7 days ago, no reimbursement yet. It was classified as “Additional Information: TKT# 01629246xxxxxx AIRLINE/AIR C
Category: Travel – Airline”.
Btw, I purchased Amazon GC on the same day but after I selected United, will that cause problem?
Confirmed still working as of May 14. Got the reimbursement 2 days later.
Thank you, I had to call in after 14 days and they manually adjusted it because the charge shows up as MPX*AMAZON.COM – 1-800-421-4655, TX
Who did you call? Did you get the reimbursement?
Amex Cs
Can I do $5 or $10 increments? Want to use them to extend a few UA mileage accounts?
Any amount $50 or less should work.
Will authorized user’s card work, too?
I personally have not tried, but yes it should work.
Posted on 21/07 $200 and reimbursed on 22/07.
Any idea if this works with Citi Prestige $250 airline credit?
Does not. I tried.
i just tried $100, and it took a week for the credit to hit, but it worked.
so you dont need to limit to $50
Does this work as travel credit for the new Chase Sapphire Reserve?
I believe yes because the category is:
“Category: Travel – Airline. SPECIAL SERVICE TICKET”
No it doesn’t work – I tried it. Post updated to reflect results of both Prestige and Reserve.
My purchase was named differently on my AMEX activity “MILEAGEPLUS X”. Anyone else seen this? If so, will it still work?
Worked for me on 9/14/16. I did 4 $50 increments.
will buying Amazon gift cards work on American airlines
Thanks for this wonderful info…does anyone know if it still works? I followed the instructions, but don’t see a credit yet. It’s been 6 days since the Amazon charges hit.
As of ~2 weeks ago it no longer works via United MPX
Has this been tested for Jan 2017 yet? Has Amex closed the loophole?
I will be testing this tomorrow and will update it with the results.
Any luck?
Dead for now. Hopefully it’s temporary as we have seen in the past but this time it might be permanent.