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Various Reimbursements (By Calendar Year)

Airline Incidental Fee Reimbursement

Many credit cards offer airline incidental fee reimbursement, ranging from $100 to $250. In general, these reimbursement limits are based on the calendar year. If you haven't used this year's reimbursement yet, you'd better hurry. If you have any of the cards listed below, you can follow the tips in parentheses to get the airline reimbursement. If you're interested in applying, just click the card name to view the introduction:

Please note:

  • For AMEX reimbursements (Platinum, Gold), remember that you must first select an airline. If you haven't used much of the current reimbursement, you can usually change it successfully by chatting with customer service online. FNBO is a special case: it doesn't require a selection, and the feature works exactly like AMEX.
  • AMEX may claw back reimbursements (the current guess is that ineligible reimbursements are reviewed after the card is closed). The latest DP for getting the reimbursement is adding funds to UA Travel Bank Cash, Southwest tickets under $100, and other methods don't really work well

If you're planning to close these cards anyway, you might as well wait until after you receive the 2020 reimbursement before downgrading. The reimbursement will definitely be more than the annual fee you'll get back.

Saks Reimbursement

AMEX Platinum Card (including the other versions of the Platinum card) can get $100 in Saks spending reimbursement each calendar year, split into $50 from January to June and $50 from July to December. Remember to use it. See:

Clear and LoungeBuddy Reimbursement

AMEX Green offers a $100 LoungeBuddy reimbursement and a $100 Clear membership reimbursement each calendar year. Note that this benefit is automatically included on new cards, and old cards also receive it automatically. If you already had this card before the refresh, don't forget to use it by year-end.

Uber Reimbursement

AMEX Platinum Card family gets $200 in Uber Credit + Uber VIP membership every year: add your Platinum card to your Uber account, and the account will become VIP, with benefits such as better ride options. At the same time, your Uber account gets $15 in Credit for each of the first 11 months of the year, and $35 in December. Credit expires at the end of each month. December's Credit is higher than usual, so be sure not to waste it. Multiple Platinum cards can be added to the same Uber account and stack their Credit together.

Dell Reimbursement

After its refresh, AMEX Business Platinum added a Dell reimbursement benefit. Use this card to spend at Dell.com or in-store, and you can get $200 in reimbursement per year. Specifically, you get $100 from January to June and the remaining $100 from July to December. Note that this reimbursement does not roll over; if you use it up in the first half of the year, it's gone.

Special Pandemic-Era Benefits

These are mainly AMEX credits. Check the cards you hold so you don't miss the December credits.

Phone Service Reimbursement

Detailed analysis: AMEX Phone Service Fee Reimbursement Guide

Streaming Reimbursement

Platinum variants

Detailed analysis: AMEX Streaming Reimbursement Guide (If you really can't use it, redeeming for Amazon gift cards is the easiest option.)

Shipping Reimbursement

AMEX Business Platinum: From May to December, $20 per month, $160 in total, for example with UPS, FedEx, USPS, and other shipping companies

Q4 5%/5x Credit Card Cash Back

The fourth quarter is the holiday shopping season, so as a reminder, check each card's offers first and choose the right card and the right category for your spending.

  • Discover it: Amazon.com, Target, and Walmart.com. A welcome category, since it covers most of the major online and in-store spending for the holiday season. If I remember correctly, some merchants that support Pay with Amazon can also trigger the 5% bonus. (Activation link)
  • Chase Freedom (Flex): Walmart and PayPal WM stores have plenty of third-party gift cards and Visa gift cards, both in-store and online. As for PayPal, Kuku previously shared a way to route any online purchase through PayPal, which can turn purchases on Amazon, Google Shopping, and other sites that don't originally support PayPal into PayPal purchases. See this article. (Activation link)
  • US Bank Cash+: The other categories aren't great for at-home spending, so choose cell phone bill. Electrical store is also okay, and Best Buy has plenty of third-party gift cards
  • Citi Dividend: Best Buy & Warehouse Online, which is still a decent category. But I guess most of your $300 annual cap has already been maxed out on grocery spend in Q1 and drugstore spend in Q2. (Activation link)
  • ABOC Platinum Rewards Credit Card: Department-store shopping, including Amazon, Target, Walmart, Costco, and department stores. This category is very broad, so I believe everyone will be able to use it up this time. (You must register at https://www.abocrewards.com/)

Among these, please note: a) Discover it and Chase Freedom only earn 5% cash back or 5x points on the first $1,500 each quarter, so plan ahead and don't go over. Citi Dividend, on the other hand, is based on a $300 annual cash-back cap, so if you've already maxed it out earlier in the year, don't use it in Q4. c) Discover it, Chase Freedom, and Citi Dividend can all be activated through each card's online banking for the quarterly 5%/5x bonus. If you can't find the button, you can also activate it by phone, online chat, or secure message. d) Cash+'s 5% cash-back categories can be selected freely, so it's best to choose a category that other cards don't offer. If you're not interested in these multiple-point/cash-back categories, you might as well refer to this article: Credit Card Tips — Category Swapping to get 5% cash back in other categories.

Airline and Hotel Elite Status

Airline and hotel elite status is generally calculated based on the number of flights and stays during the calendar year. If you find that you're only a little short of moving up to a higher tier this year, it may be worth finding a way to go for it. After all, some elite statuses can provide quite a few real benefits.

Other

If there are any other things expiring at year-end, feel free to leave a comment and remind everyone so we can help each other avoid getting clawed back...