Introduction (If you already know about the credit, skip to the next section)

American Express Platinum Card is a great card to have, however it come with a hefty $450 Annual fee.

The card offers you many perks, which if you use them, are well worth the $450 in fees. One of the interesting perks is a $200 Airline fee Credit per calendar year which can be used towards incidentals fees ( like checked baggage fee, food / drinks purchases on airlines, etc.)

In order to receive the benefit, you have to enroll in the program.

Enrolling in the Program

To enroll in the program, you can either call American Airlines or use the following link

americanexpress.com/airlinechoice

Important Note

If you are enrolled in the $200 Airline Fee Credit and wish to keep your current airline selection, no action is needed.

If you would like to change your airline selection for 2012, you may do so in January by returning to this site.

Terms and Condition from American Express

Benefit is available to Consumer and Business Platinum Card® and Centurion® members only. To receive statement credits of up to $200 a year toward incidental air travel fees, Card member must enroll and choose a qualifying airline at www.americanexpress.com/airlinechoice. Only the Basic Card member or Authorized Account Manager(s) on the Card account can enroll and select the qualifying airline. Card members who have not chosen a qualifying airline will be able to do so at any time. It can take up to 48 hours post enrollment and airline choice for the benefit to be effective. Card members who have already selected a qualifying airline will not be able to change their choice until January of each calendar year at which time they may change their airline choice for that calendar year. Card members who do not change their airline selection will remain with their current airline. Statement Credits: Incidental air travel fees must be charged on the enrolled Card account for the benefit to apply. Incidental air travel fees must be separate charges from airline ticket charges. Fees not charged by the Card member’s airline of choice (e.g. wireless internet and fees incurred with airline alliance partners) do not qualify for statement credits. Upgrade charges are not deemed to be incidental fees. The airline must submit the incidental air travel fees under the appropriate merchant code, industry code, or required service or product identifier for the charge to be eligible. Purchases made by both the Basic and Additional Card members on the enrolled Card account are eligible for statement credits. Each Card Account is eligible for up to a total of $200 a year in statement credits, regardless of the number of Cards on the Account. Please allow 2-4 weeks after the qualifying incidental air travel fee is charged to your Card account for statement credit(s) to be posted to the account. Card members can call the number on the back of the Card if statement credits have not posted after 4 weeks from the date of purchase. Card members are responsible for payment of all charges until the statement credit(s) posts to the account. To be eligible for this benefit, Card account(s) must be active and not in default at the time of statement credit fulfillment. If a charge for any incidental air travel fee is included in a Pay Over Time feature balance on your Card account (for example, Sign & Travel), the statement credit associated with that charge will not be applied to that Pay Over Time feature balance. Instead, the statement credit will be applied to your Pay In Full balance. For additional information about this benefit, call the number on the back of your Card.

Background on Missing points:

- I had made some airline ticket purchases which are eligible for category bonus on my American Express Card. I also made some more airline ticket purchases in the following statement cycle. I received the bonus points for the next cycle but the previous one was some how ignored.

- My account was under financial review (more on how it went for review later) by American Express. My suspision was that when they looked for account to give category bonus, my account was somehow identified as being freezed and was not given a category bonus.

- Since I cleared the Financial Review process, I should now be able to get the bonus points.

Getting the Missing Points.

Step 1: Call the number on the back of the card.

The representative was able to confirm that I should be eligible for the bonus points for the purchase but they were unable to add the points. They gave me a direct number for Membership Rewards

Step 2: Call Membership Rewards ( at 800 297 3276)

The Representatives were less then helpful. IT took them a while to figure out why I should be getting bonus points for the purchase. They suggested that I wait for 8-12 weeks after the closing of the statement and then call them. I knew It was time to ask for the supervisor and I did so. I had to explain the full scenario again to the Supervisor and she then suggested that I have to write a letter and MAIL it in to a P.O. Box number. At which point I knew I had a bad supervisor and and Representative. I thanked them and dropped the call.

Attempt 2: I had to explain the whole scenario again, at which they said I can either send a secure message or FAX them the inquiring about the missing points ( much better). I went the secure message route, as it is much easier to keep track of the conversation.

Step 3: Send Secure Message

The first rep who saw my secure message was came back with a clueless response. She had detailed how membership rewards works and had clearly not taken time to read the issue in my message. I had to reply to it explaining that I understand what she said and I was contacting to get the missing points. Later I get a secure message from Amex, which had confirmed that they have credited the missing points. I later confirmed the points were posted as an adjustment to my account.

Conclusion: What really worked was the secure message. I had always heard that AMEX has great customer service, this was definitely not an example of that. I expect better service from American Express for the hefty yearly fee they charge.