This is a sort of follow-up to my recent post on a deal for the American Express Platinum card.
One of the great benefits of the American Express Platinum card is receiving up to $200 in statement credits for incidental fees incurred on an airline of your choice. I take this to be a "refund" of $200 that I would ordinarily incur with my airline (for me it is American Airlines). To me, this results in a $200 discount on the $450 annual fee of this Amex card; ESPECIALLY if you are able to take advantage of a small loophole in the statement credit.
Based on the statement credit terms and condition, "airline tickets, upgrades, point transfer fees, duty free items, gift cards, award tickets, and fees not charged by the enrolled airline (e.g., wireless internet or Alliance Partner fees) are not eligible for credit". I specifically highlighted gift cards because the point community has noted that many people have been successful in buying gift cards and earning the statement credits. The only reason for this is that the purchase is identified by the Amex computer based on coding by AA and a credit is given; slipping through the cracks. While this seems to have been happening for some time now, who knows when it will be completely fixed.
After receiving my new Amex Plat and selecting AA as my airline of choice, I purchased four $50 gift cards (virtual) at aa.com (on 1/11/13 to be specific). On 1/14/13 I received four $50 credits from Amex for those purchases. Suffice it to say, I just earned a free $200 in AA gift cards. OK, they aren't technically "free", but $200 of that hefty $450 annual fee to own the card can now be applied to a future AA ticket.
I also had the Mrs buy $200 in gift cards with her Platinum card on 1/12/13. On 1/14/13 she also received her credits.
So this year we "got lucky" in a sense. We tried late last year once I found out about the possible loophole, but we were unsuccessful with our $100 attempt. Buying an AA gift card for us is no risk since we buy many flights on AA during the year (it ends up just being a form of pre-payment). We did end up using the entire $200 credit last year on legitimate incidental charges (change fee, food, drink). So all was not lost.
Does this assure you of a credit if you try the same? Not at all. But the boards are lit with success stories on the purchasing of gift card and getting statement credits (haven't heard of any people not getting the credits yet). I'd say there is no harm in trying ASAP in case Amex figures out a way to close this loophole.
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