Guide to the BofA Credit Card Airline Reimbursement Benefit

About the Bank of America Airline Credit

BofA currently has two credit cards that offer an airline credit. However, the official eligible categories only include airline incidental fees, not airfare. Based on reader testing, there are still some other ways to trigger the credit. In this article, we’ll go over this benefit in detail, along with recent data points from readers on what has been reimbursed.

You can check usage of this credit in the card benefits section of the app. Sometimes after the new year, the tracker has not refreshed yet, so it’s best to wait until it updates before doing anything—no need to rush.

Official Terms

These are the terms for the airline credit on the BofA Premium Rewards. The Premium Elite version is basically the same, so we won’t repeat it here. The key points are:

• The $100 credit is based on the calendar year
• The credit can only be used for airline incidental fees

You are eligible for a statement credit of up to $100 each calendar year if you make qualifying airline incidental fee transactions.

To qualify, you must use your Premium Rewards® credit card to pay all airline incidental fee transactions. Allow 2-3 weeks from qualifying for the statement credit to post to your account. You are responsible for payment of all charges until the statement credit posts to your account. Your account must be open with active charging privileges at the time of statement credit fulfillment.

Covered by BofA are incidental fees on domestic U.S. flights, such as seat upgrades, ticket change fees, cancellation fees, checked baggage fees, in-flight entertainment, food, and airline lounge fees.

Qualifying transactions are those purchases made on domestic-originated flights on certain U.S.-domestic airline carriers that include:

• preferred seating upgrades,
• ticket change/cancellation fees,
• checked baggage fees,
• in-flight entertainment,
• onboard food and beverage charges,
• and airport lounge fees affiliated with eligible airline carriers.

The following charges are not included, such as airfare, buying miles, mileage transfer fees, gift cards, duty-free purchases, and certain fees charged by some low-cost carriers.

• Airline ticket purchases,
• mileage point purchases,
• mileage point transfer fees,
• gift cards, duty-free purchases,
• award tickets and fees incurred with airline alliance partners do not qualify.
• Purchases made with the following U.S. domestic airline carriers will not qualify for the Airline Incidental Statement Credit: Allegiant Air, Spirit Airlines, and Sun Country Airlines.

In theory, the charge needs to be separate from the airfare purchase, otherwise it may not be reimbursed.

Airline incidental fee transactions must be separate from airline ticket charges. The airlines must submit the ancillary fees under the appropriate merchant category code (MCC) , industry code or required service or product identifier to be identified as a qualifying airline incidental fee transaction.

Those are the official terms, but technically the credit is determined based on the merchant’s MCC. In other words, as long as the charge matches what the system is looking for, it can be reimbursed automatically. If your charge should qualify under the terms but does not get reimbursed automatically, feel free to contact customer service.

The published eligible MCCs are 3000, 3001, 3057, 3058, 3063, 3066, 3132, 3174, 3196, and 3256, corresponding to the following:

• 3000 – United.
• 3001 – American Airlines.
• 3057 – East/West Airline (Australia)
• 3058 – Delta
• 3063 – US Airways
• 3066 – Southwest
• 3132 – Frontier
• 3174 – JetBlue
• 3196 – Hawaiin
• 3256 – Alaskan

Real-World Reimbursement Tests

The data points in this section come from DOC.

In fact, in addition to the officially listed eligible charges above, some other purchases can also trigger the credit. A quick reminder: if the purchase does not technically fit the terms, wait and see whether it gets reimbursed automatically, and do not contact customer service. Otherwise the MCC coding loophole might get fixed.

Charges That Can Get Reimbursed

If you’re not sure what to use the credit on, buying an AA gift card to save for later is a good option. Ever since this credit was introduced, AA gift cards have been fairly reliable. It’s best to buy them on a computer. In addition, some readers are testing whether UA Travel Bank can trigger the credit, so you may want to wait and see—after all, it’s only January.

• American Airlines:
  • Baggage check: 1, 2,
  • Award close in fee: 1($75) , 2, 3,
  • Award taxes & fees: 1($11.20) , 2, 3(didn’t work, was for $132) , 4,
  • eGiftcard: 1($50) , 2($100) , 3($50 & $50) , 4($100) , 5($100) , 6($100) , 7($100) , 8($100) , 9($100) , 10, 11($100) , 12($100) , 13($100) , 14($50) , 15($100) , 16($55)  17($100) , 18($88.xx) , 19, 20($100) , 21($100) , 22($100) , 23($50) , 24($100) , 25($100) , 26($100) , 27($100) , 28($100) , 29($100) , 30($100) , 31($100) , 32($100) , 33($100) , 34($100) , 35($100) , 36($100) , 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46,
  • Change fee: 1
  • International Preferred Seat: 1
  • Miles transfer: 1
• Alaska:
  • Award taxes: 1
  • Fare change cost: 1
  • In flight food/beverages: 1,
• Delta:
  • Award taxes: 1
  • Comfort+: 1,
  • Change fees: 1
  • Checked baggage: 1
  • In flight food: 1,
  • First class upgrade: 1
• Frontier:
  • Exit row seat fee: 1
  • First checked bag: 1
  • Regular fare: 1,
  • Seat fee: 1
• JetBlue:
  • $5.60 taxes: 1
  • Bags: 1
• Southwest:
  • Early bird check-in: 1, 2, 3,
  • Fare: 1(under $60) , 2  ($49)
  • $5.60 taxes: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6,
  • In flight internet: 1,
• United:
  • Award booking taxes: 1, 2,
  • Baggage: 1
  • Flight change fee: 1
  • Additional check-in baggage on international flight: 1
  • Seat Upgrade: 1, 2  (didn’t work, but did work after manual intervention)

Does Not Trigger Reimbursement

• Alaska Airlines:
  • Gift cards: 1, 2,
  • Wi-Fi: 1,
• British Airways:
  • Award taxes: 1
•  Delta:
  • Comfort Plus: 1  (you should be able to get this manually adjusted though)
  • eGiftcard: 1  ($50)
  • Skyclub drinks: 1  (got it credited after calling)
• Hawaiian:
  • Gift card: 1  ($100)
• JetBlue:
  • In-flight meal: 1,
• Southwest:
  • Award fee: 1
  • Gift card: 1(under $20) , 2($100) , 3($100) , 4($50) , 5  ($50)
  • Internet: 1,
• Spirit (it seems this is not a covered airline):
  • Bag fees: 1, 2, 3
  • Seats: 1
  • In-flight food: 1
• Sun Country:
  • Change fee: 1
• United:
  • Award taxes: 1
  • Close-in fee: 1
  • Seat upgrade: 1,

Other things to keep in mind

If you’re planning to close your card soon, make sure to use up this year’s reimbursement before closing it. Reimbursements like this will not be clawed back after you close the card, so otherwise they would just go to waste.