Get Full Value from Your Airline Incidental Credits

"Airline Incidental Credits" are a potentially valuable feature of several credit cards. But, you may not naturally generate enough qualifying "incidental" charges to fully take advantage of your available credits, especially if you only have a short period of time, such as with a calendar-year credit that you receive towards the end of the year.

If you can't use your Airline Incidental Credits naturally, there are some tricks that can allow you to take advantage of the full credit anount, maximizing the value of getting or holding onto the credit card.

Even if you'll eventually generate enough natural expenses which qualify, you may find it easier to "take care of the credit" using one of these approaches, and not need to worry about making sure to use the appropriate card for your airline incidental purchases, over the course of the year.

Jump to

Less common ways of using your credits
Buying airline gift cards
Buying "regular" gift cards
The Southwest Airline trick
#Taking advantage of credit card company policies

In many cases, seat selection and upgrade fees are included. Some airlines charge a small fee to select any seat ahead-of-time. Other airlines let you upgrade to a nicer fee for a reasonable charge. If you wind up wanting to pick or upgrade your seats, you can quickly generate a substantial quantity of charges that will qualify for your credits.
Your credits can take part of the sting out of ticket change and cancellation fees. These are covered with most of the cards. Of course, it is better to avoid these in the first place.
Award Ticket fees sometimes qualify. And these fees are unavoidable when you book frequent flyer tickets.
In flight wireless purchases typically DON'T count. That's because you are usually buying them from the internet service provider, such as GoGo, and not directly from the airline.
Lounge memberships are typically included. While not everyone is interested in spending hundreds of dollars on a lounge membership, if you are, you can use up an entire credit with a single purchase.

Buying airline gift cards

The typical way to get full value from your Airline Incidental Credits is by purchasing gift cards directly from the airline.

Gift cards purchases are explicitly excluded in the terms-of-use for every Airline Incidental Credit. However, in practice, the credit card back-ends are typically not very sophisticated. The credit winds up getting applied against many small-value credit card charges with the airline, regardless of what they are actually for.
So, the typical way to get full value from Airline Incidental Credits is to purchase small denomination gift cards. You'll need to buy them directly from an airline. As long as each purchase is only for a $50 gift card (or sometimes a $100 gift card), the credit winds up getting applied. You can then eventually use the gift card to make an actual ticket purchase. This trick can be repeated as many times as is necessary. For example, if you have a $200 credit, you could purchase four $50 gift cards, typically as separate transactions.

This doesn't work with every airline, so you'll need to check online. Whether this works depends on the specific airline and credit card combination. With any given credit card, it may work with one airline and not another. And the specifics can change. If you want to be more certain, you'll need to do a little online research to check what has been working, and what has not.

With many cards, you could also simply experiment. Purchase a $50 gift card from your favorite airline. Wait a week or so, and check the credit card account online to see if the credit posted. If so, purchase more cards. If not, try a different airline.

You'll need to check for the Amex cards at the beginning of the year. With the different versions of the Amex Platinum card, the Hilton Aspire card, and the Premier Rewards card, the credit only works for a single airline, that you choose when you get the card, and can only change at the beginning of the year. You don't have the flexibility to react to what is currently working, when you try to buy your gift cards later. So, you'll need to be proactive, check in January, and ideally make your purchases then, when there is little chance that a particular airline will have stopped working.

Flyertalk has a good set of forums dedicated to this issue:

If possible, immediately attach the gift cards to your frequent flyer account. With many airlines, you can add the gift cards to your account, so you won't have to worry about finding the information later, and you are less likely to forget about the purchase.

Obviously, purchasing gift cards, and remembering to use them later, is a nuisance. But for many people, it is better than letting part of their airline incidental credit expire unused.

Buying Inexpensive Airplane Tickets

With some airline and credit card combinations, the credit will be applied even when you simply buy an inexpensive airline ticket. As long as the ticket is below some threshold, often $100, the credit card back-end will treat it as an incidental expense. As with gift cards, you'll need to purchase directly from the airline.

If you have the opportunity to purchase inexpensive tickets, make sure to check the web, and see if you might get reimbursed via one of your credit card's Airline Incidental Credits. It is easier than using gift cards.

Buying "regular" gift cards

If you don't regularly fly on the same airline, you might need to wait some time before you have an opportunity to redeem any airline gift cards that you buy. Many people would prefer a gift card from another merchant, such as Amazon, that they are likely to redeem more quickly.

Fortunately, with a few credit cards, you can qualify for the Airline Incidental Credit by purchasing one of a wide variety of gift cards, and not just an airline gift card.
The trick is to use a shopping application called "MileagePlux X" from United Airlines. When you make a purchase from the smartphone app, some credit card companies see a small-denomination purchase from United Airlines, and apply the credit. You can buy anything, but the easiest approach is to purchase something like an Amazon gift card, and immediately apply it to your Amazon account balance. MileagePlux X Website.

This doesn't work with the cards issued directly from American Express. Such as the different variations of the Amex Platinum card, the Hilton Aspire card, or the Premier Rewards card. It typically DOES work with Amex cards issued from other banks.

The Southwest Airline trick

Travel in Points outline another approach that can work.

The trick is to purchase (and then cancel) refundable international award tickets on Southwest Airlines. You'll be charged a fees and taxes that are larger than the normal $5.60 TSA surcharge. Your Airline Incidental Credits will then often get applied to these fees. However, when you cancel the award ticket, and the fees are refunded to your card, the previous credit is typically not affected. As a result, you just wind up with a credit on your account that will offset any other purchases you make.

If this works with Southwest, it will probably work with any airline where you can cancel your award tickets without any cancellation fee.

Taking advantage of credit card company policies

There are several ways that you can take advantage of the credit card company's policies to improve the value proposition of travel credits. We avoid these approaches, because we feel like they unfairly take advantage of consumer-friendly credit card policies. Plus, banks don't like when you cancel or convert your cards too quickly, and may decide they don't want to do business with you. But, some people may feel differently.

If you get a new credit card in December it is typically possible to "triple-dip" any calendar-year credit. As long as you cancel most cards within a month or so of your annual fee posting, the fee will be refunded. So, you could sign-up in December, take advantage of the credit before the end of the year, take advantage of another credit the following year, and then take advantage of the credit a third time in January, just before you cancel your card. All, with only paying a single year's annual fee.
After the initial year, you can often downgrade your card, once you've used your credit, to get a partial refund of your annual fee. Most cards with credits have significant annual fees. Once you've used your credit, you can often downgrade your card, and receive a partial credit against the annual fee. Then, the following year, you could conceivably upgrade the card, take advantage of the credit another time, and then downgrade again. You typically can't do this in the initial year, due to banking regulations.
You can sometimes cancel your card, after you've used your credit, and get refunded part of the annual fee. For calendar-year based credits, you can still take advantage of two different credits, while only paying a fraction of the annual fee. Not every bank will pro-rate the annual fee for cancelled cards. You'll need to do some research online.