Good afternoon everyone, I hope your week is going well. 2 years ago, I wrote My Disappointing Experience with AMEX Business Platinum 35% Membership Rewards Point Rebate. In that post, I shared my negative experience using the 35% Airline Bonus benefit that is available on the American Express Business Platinum Charge Card. Long story short, the automatic 35% rebate never showed up, so I contacted AMEX to resolve the issue and the AMEX rep gave me the wrong rebate amount (fewer points than I was supposed to receive). I then contacted AMEX via Twitter to resolve the issue. Since that negative experience, I did not trust / use the 35% Airline Bonus benefit until April 2021. Thankfully, I had a much better experience that was surprising simple and straightforward. If you have the AMEX Biz Plat and haven’t used this benefit in a while, I think it is time to give it another shot.
As a reminder, the 35% Airline Bonus benefit allows you to get a 35% rebate on the number of American Express Membership Rewards Points you redeem toward any flight on your selected airline or any business / first class flight on any airline. You can receive up to 500,000 rebated points per calendar year (maxed out when you redeem 1.43 million points).
On April 24, I booked 3 separate one way flights on Alaska Airlines that cost $148.40 each. The way the booking and rebate process works is a little confusing. You book your flights through the AMEX Travel portal and pay with your AMEX Biz Plat. Then AMEX will redeem 14,840 points and give you a $148.40 credit. The $148.40 purchase and $148.40 credit cancel each other out and you are only out the 14,840 points. Then 6-10 weeks later, you will get 35% of your points back (14,840 x 35% = 5,194). I told you it was confusing.
On my American Express Membership Rewards Points account summary page, I see 3 separate redemptions of 14,840 points.
The following day, I received this email from American Express that said my recent flight redemption was eligible for the 35% rebate.
1 month later, I received 3 separate earning transactions of 5,194 points each. I’m not sure why the first transaction posted on May 25 but the other 2 transactions posted on May 26. The math is correct (14,840 x 35% = 5,194) and the points posted earlier than the 6-10 week promised time (posting 4 weeks and 2 days later).
If you have any questions about the 35% rebate, please leave a comment below. Have a great week everyone!
What a clunky and cumbersome system. I’m mean, what could go wrong? For travel hackers like us who keep an eagle eye on every single point and mile, it’s still a pain in the ass. For the casual travel, I’m sure the banks get away with murder. Most people don’t take screenshots or note various deadlines to their calendars for things like this. I’m glad you got your rebate, but really, this kind of thing can’t create much good will.
Yes, I keep screenshots and calendar alerts to make sure I get the points. Wish it were easier but it is what it is.
I get 25% from my Biz Gold although I do wish the 25% was upfront rather than having to mindfully watch for it as I sell don’t trust Amex to get it right.
25% rebate is not bad, but having the rebate upfront would be ideal.
If ever there was one thing I wish Amex would have copied from Citi was the upfront rebate. When the Premier had the 25% uplift it was discounted upfront.
If Citi, and their janky system can do it, certainly Amex can.
Yes, I wish AMEX copied Citi on this too.
Did you get 5x on your airline “purchase” of 148.40?
I just checked and it looks like I earned 0 points since the purchase and credit cancelled each other out.
What happens when we want to use points for Southwest flights? Southwest is my choice for the Amex Bus airline incidental credit. I believe we need to call versus booking online, correct? Can we get 35% back on WN flights, and if so is that a better value than using Southwest miles earned via Chase Ultimate Rewards?
Hi Judy, yes I think you need to call AMEX Travel to book SWA tickets. The value you get from AMEX MRs is about 1.5 cents which is close to the value of SWA points.
Actually, I have used this feature quite a bit, and it has been pretty seamless, if sometimes slow for me. In this age of cancelled tickets, the only PITA is that the cancelled tickets are in AMEX Travel, not in the Airline system, so a phone call is unavoidable, although it has been a pleasure (when I finally get through.)
I would rather cancel the trip with the airline (Alaska Airlines in this case) and have Alaska Airlines travel wallet funds that are really easy to use :)
Does the cardholder need to be booked on the ticket/reservation to qualify for the 35% rebate?
Hi E, no, you can book the flight for others and still get the 35% rebate. It just has to be on your airline of choice or any first / business class flight. It takes about 30 days to see the rebate in your account.
have you tried doing this for southwest? it’s an absolute nightmare
Hi Johnny, no, I haven’t tried this with SWA since SWA isn’t my AMEX Biz Plat airline of choice. I’m sure it is difficult since you can’t book SWA flights through the AMEX Travel website, so I’m guessing you need to call AMEX to book the flight and then you might need to follow up with AMEX to get the 35% rebate.