The American Express Business Platinum card is renowned for its premium travel perks, including a $200 annual airline fee credit. Amex specifies this credit is for “incidental fees, such as checked bags and in-flight refreshments” charged to your Business Platinum Card by your selected airline. However, savvy travelers have discovered a valuable workaround to maximize this credit, even if they rarely incur such incidental expenses.
For the past three years, including 2023 and 2024, cardholders have successfully utilized this credit by depositing funds into their United Airlines TravelBank. This personal experience, now in its third consecutive year, confirms that funding a United TravelBank with the Amex Business Platinum triggers the $200 airline fee credit. This is excellent news for frequent flyers who, like myself, often bypass baggage fees and onboard purchases, potentially leaving the airline credit unused.
Amex Business Platinum Card United TravelBank Credit
The reimbursement process was swift, with the credit posting to the account within three days. Due to United TravelBank’s deposit limitations – offering options of $100 or $250, but not $200 – the transaction was completed as two separate $100 deposits.
It’s crucial to approach this strategy with a degree of caution. While personal experience and numerous reports across travel blogs and forums indicate this method works, it’s not officially endorsed by Amex for United TravelBank. Therefore, success isn’t guaranteed and could change in the future. The worst-case scenario is having $200 in your United TravelBank, which, for United flyers, is still a valuable asset for future flight purchases.
To leverage this potential benefit, ensure you have selected United Airlines as your designated airline for the Amex Business Platinum airline fee credit. This selection can be easily made by contacting the Amex Business Platinum customer service number located on the back of your card.
While some have voiced concerns about publicizing this method, fearing it might lead to Amex discontinuing it, it’s important to note this isn’t a newly discovered secret. Prominent travel websites and blogs, including Thrifty Traveler, Frequent Miler, Upgraded Points, DansDeals, FlyerTalk, and Reddit communities, have widely discussed and documented this successful use of the Amex airline fee credit with United TravelBank. These platforms possess significantly larger audiences, suggesting that this information is already broadly known and likely considered by American Express. It’s reasonable to assume Amex is aware of this utilization and, for the time being, permits it.
Ultimately, using the Amex Business Platinum airline fee credit to fund your United TravelBank offers a practical way for cardholders to extract tangible value from this perk, regardless of their incidental airline spending habits.
