{"id":13155,"date":"2026-01-21T04:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-01-21T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/?p=13155"},"modified":"2026-04-09T18:18:46","modified_gmt":"2026-04-10T00:18:46","slug":"making-airline-incidental-credits-useful-2026-style","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/index.php\/2026\/01\/21\/making-airline-incidental-credits-useful-2026-style\/","title":{"rendered":"Making Airline Incidental Credits Useful: 2026 Style"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>We&#8217;ve had enough time in January to learn what works for the annual-fee-endowed American Express Platinum and Business Platinum card $200 calendar year airline incidental credits. So, how do we make those incidental credits worth something? The best quasi-cashout options seem to be:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>United<\/strong>:<s> Buy&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.united.com\/offers\/travelcash\">TravelBank credit<\/a>&nbsp;directly. It expires in five years and can be used to pay for United flights. You can usually sell this for 88%+, and with a little trickery&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/index.php\/2023\/12\/19\/navigating-travel-credits-on-united-airlines\/\">you can turn them into flexible credits<\/a>&nbsp;good for other people and on other airlines<\/s>. The situation sucks now, I guess buy yourself Economy Plus seats and pay for &#8220;seat selection fees&#8221;, then refund to a future flight credit&nbsp;<em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.flyertalk.com\/forum\/american-express-membership-rewards\/2181964-platinum-airline-fee-200-reimbursement-reports-ua-2025-a.html\">[more info]<\/a><\/em><br><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Delta<\/strong>: Buy airfare and pay partially with a gift card or travel credit, pay for the remainder with your card (don\u2019t go over $200 though). Alternatively if you have a co-branded American Express Delta card and are eligible for Pay with Miles with, pay partially with miles and the remainder will be credited\u00a0provided it&#8217;s less than $200 <em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.flyertalk.com\/forum\/american-express-membership-rewards\/2148270-platinum-airline-fee-200-reimbursement-reports-dl-only-2024-25-a.html\">[more info]<\/a><\/em><br><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Alaska<\/strong>: Buy a seat upgrade after booking and chat your &#8220;seat selection fee&#8221; doesn&#8217;t post, buy a flight paid partially with Alaska wallet funds and partially with your AmEx (less than $100), then refund to your wallet after 24 hours, or change a ticket to a higher fare as long as its less than $200 in additional cost&nbsp;<em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.flyertalk.com\/forum\/american-express-membership-rewards\/2148090-platinum-airline-fee-200-reimbursement-reports-only-2024-25-a.html\">[more info]<\/a><\/em><br><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>American<\/strong>: Buy cheap airfare, then change it to a flight that you really want that costs more and pay with your credit card (don\u2019t go over the credit amount though). If you want to gamble, you\u2019ve got roughly even odds that award taxes and fees will count&nbsp;<em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.flyertalk.com\/forum\/american-express-membership-rewards\/2148510-platinum-airline-fee-200-reimbursement-reports-aa-only-2024-25-a.html\">[more info]<\/a><\/em><br><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Southwest<\/strong>: Buy a flight less than $109, or book an international flight with taxes under $109 per ticket, then refund to a travel credit. Combine with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.southwest.com\/airfare-types-benefits\/\">the Choice Extra fare bucket<\/a> to get around name-locking &nbsp;<em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.flyertalk.com\/forum\/american-express-membership-rewards\/2148094-platinum-airline-fee-200-reimbursement-reports-wn-southwest-only-2024-25-a.html\">[more info]<\/a><\/em><br><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>JetBlue<\/strong>: There aren&#8217;t new 2026 datapoints yet, but likely 2025&#8217;s version still works: Buy a flight less than $137 then cancel the flight after 24 hours and refund to your JetBlue wallet. For best results, $74 Blue Basic fares will have approximately $99 Blue fares (thanks to Brian C) <em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.flyertalk.com\/forum\/american-express-membership-rewards\/1300475-platinum-airline-fee-200-reimbursement-reports-b6-only-jetblue.html\">[more info]<\/a><\/em><br><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Spirit<\/strong>: Gutsy choice friend! I&#8217;ll be surprised if Spirit is still around by April, so make it quick. A Big Front Seat upgrade works, and airfare below approximately $60 also works [<em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.flyertalk.com\/forum\/american-express-membership-rewards\/1621581-platinum-airline-fee-200-reimbursement-reports-nk-spirit-only-4.html\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.flyertalk.com\/forum\/american-express-membership-rewards\/1621581-platinum-airline-fee-200-reimbursement-reports-nk-spirit-only-4.html\">more info<\/a><\/em>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>For bonus points, you&#8217;ve still got time to cash out your travel credits using last year&#8217;s selected airline, get reimbursed, and then <a href=\"https:\/\/global.americanexpress.com\/card-benefits\/detail\/airline-fee-credit\/platinum\">change to a new airline online<\/a> by January 31.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Have a nice Wednesday friends!<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"597\" height=\"904\" src=\"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/image-13.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-13157\" srcset=\"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/image-13.png 597w, https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/image-13-198x300.png 198w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 597px) 100vw, 597px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">Haven&#8217;t had enough of 2026 style yet? Here&#8217;s 2026 fashion, apparently.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We&#8217;ve had enough time in January to learn what works for the annual-fee-endowed American Express Platinum and Business Platinum card $200 calendar year airline incidental<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_editorskit_title_hidden":false,"_editorskit_reading_time":0,"_editorskit_is_block_options_detached":false,"_editorskit_block_options_position":"{}","footnotes":""},"categories":[53,56],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13155","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-gift-cards","category-wisdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13155","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13155"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13155\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13531,"href":"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13155\/revisions\/13531"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13155"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13155"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13155"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}