Good morning everyone, I hope your weekend is going well. Yesterday, I booked an American Airlines flight from New York (LGA) to Dallas (DFW) to Orange County (SNA) for Laura and myself (we plan to check out the Centurion Lounges in LGA and DFW during our trip). With my American Express Gold Card, I get a $100 airline fee credit to use each year to cover seat assignments, checked bags, in-flight drinks/snacks, etc. I decided to use my $100 airline fee credit to purchase preferred seats for our American Airlines flights.
Unfortunately, American Express has a weird system that will automatically enroll you in last year’s airline choice if you do not make a change by January 31. Since I selected Southwest Airlines in 2019 (when buying Southwest Airlines eGift Cards triggered the credits), that was who my airline choice was for 2020. Thankfully, you can change your airline choice if you do not use any of the credit in the current year. Instead of calling American Express, I clicked the Chat button in the lower right corner of the screen.
I typed in my comment and the automated system asked me a few questions. After going through the prompts to change to American Airlines, I thought the Chat box was going to make the change for me, but unfortunately, I had to be connected to human. After confirming my airline choice, the agent processed my change. I’m not sure why the Chat box could not do it by itself, but the whole process only took a few minutes.