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With all of the statement credits from the various premium rewards card refreshes, I’ve been thinking about the ethics involved in turning these credits into cash.
There’s a few variations on this. First, think about using statement credits from the American Express Platinum Card® like the Amex airline fee credit and the Resy credit to buy cash equivalents.
You’re not supposed to be able to use the airline fee credit for airfare. However, what I’ve been doing for a few years is selecting Southwest Airlines as my designated carrier for the credit. And purchases of airfare under $100 on my Platinum card would get reimbursed. I could even cancel that ticket for a credit to apply to a future purchase, combining more than one credit.
At some point this could stop working (just like buying American Airlines gift cards stopped working). But in the meantime I’m using these credits for airfare even though I’m not supposed to be able to.
- It’s against ‘the rules’
- It drives up Amex’s costs
Is this unethical?
Similarly, I didn’t have a chance to use my Platinum card’s new quarterly $100 Resy benefit before the end of the September quarter, so I purchased a $100 gift card online from a restaurant I freqeunt that uses Resy (and processes gift cards via Toast, it credited back on my card account). I’ve seen reports of a wine club that triggers the Resy credit, too!
This, too, doesn’t follow Amex’s rules since gift card purchases aren’t supposed to trigger the credit. Am I breaking a contract here? Or is Amex just being more generous than their published benefits explanation, since they are crediting gift card purchases when they say they won’t? (And since a restaurant could change how they process gift cards, Amex wouldn’t want to promise this.)
Let’s look at another scenario. Say that I use the $600 annual ($300×2) Amex hotel booking credit, where you can use it at a Fine Hotels and Resorts property on any stay or a Hotel Collection property on at least a two-night stay. And let’s further say I use it for a work trip.
- Do I submit the full amount of the stay – which I get a receipt from Amex for! – for reimbursement?
- I’ve been credited $300 of that back. Since the stay cost me $300 less, should I only get reimbursed for what I actually wound up out of pocket?
In other words, should my employer benefit because I have this card and it offers me a credit? Or is it ok to turn the benefit into cash via a work trip?
The same question is at play for Chase Sapphire Reserve® (See rates and fees). Starting in 2026, their $500 annual credit for stays with The Edit properties gets even more generous because there will be no need to split up the 2 $250 credits into different six-month time periods.
For the ethical exercise, let’s leave aside the tax question of whether the rebate reduces my cost basis in the trip and thus shouldn’t be fully reimbursed on a tax-free basis.
The key here is that you’re prepaying the whole charge and getting a credit back. Cards that just reduce the cost of your trip by the amount of the available credit aren’t going to present this same challenge or opportunity in the same way, since your receipt will be for the reduced amount and therefore is probably all you can claim reimbursement on. Then you’re using the credit for your employer’s benefit rather than your own.
- Citi Strata EliteSM Card (See rates and fees.) is offering some amazing value in the first year, with not just an 80,000 point offer but the $200 splurge credit (e.g. American Airlines, Best Buy) and $300 hotel credit are on a calendar year basis – so can be used still in 2025 and again at the start of early 2026, all in your first cardmember year.
But you’re not going to use the hotel credit on a work stay. The annual $300 hotel credit for stays of two or more nights are prepaid through Citi Travel. (Prepaid rates can still be cancellable and refundable.) It is applied to your booking when you make the reservation – it’s not a statement credit that posts later.
- Similarly, when you use the $300 travel credit through the Capital One portal that’s an annual benefit of the Capital One Venture X Card, they deduct the $300 from your charge rather than having you pay it and get reimbursed with a statement credit.
Your employer may be billing a client, but that’s not really relevant since it just pushes back the question to whether the client should be benefiting from the card you happen to have to pay for your stay?
Your employer has you on the road for a couple of nights and expects to pay for those nights, because you happen to work for a company that doesn’t manage travel with centralized billing or require you to use a company card. So you actually pay for those couple nights of lodging, and you submit your receipt just like anyone else at the company. Is there anything wrong with that?
But you aren’t actually incurring the full cost for those nights. Should your employer really be reimbursing you for more than what you’re actually out of pocket for the stay?
The card is yours, not your employer’s. You pay the annual fee on it (even though you get way more out of it than the fee costs), not your employer. Should your employer really benefit from a rebate provided by that card? Isn’t that your cardmember benefit?
What’s right here? Who should benefit from these cards, you or your employer? And is it ok for you to turn some of these credits into cash – via your employer, or because you can do more things with them that the terms and conditions of the benefit say are offered?
For rates and fees of the American Express Platinum Card®, click here.
If you pay for the card you should get the benefit. If your employer pays for the card they should get the benefit.
I think the ethical area is if you could get the hotel for $X cheaper and you still book through FHR. But if the employer would reimburse for meals on the road and you use a $100 FHR F&B credit, possible the employer still comes out ahead if the cost difference for the room is less than the F&B spend.
I don’t think the $100 Resy is the same consideration at all. That’s just offsetting an annual fee that you pay. Cost of the meal is the same either way.
I guarantee you the folks who work at the Denver airport never had this ethical debate in their heads!
I have little to add. @Peter gets it. Also, great callback to Gary’s recent Denver post, too. Niccce.
How ethical is advertising an unusable lounge “benefit”?
Maybe look at it this way: If your elected government representative was getting reimbursed in cash for something that they got a credit for, would you be happy to have that paid out of your tax dollars?
While not black and white, most definitely a grey area and one that is best avoided, by using credits for personal travel.
And a big difference between the employer/employee relationship and credit card company/customer relationship
The submitting of the full bill which is reimbursed at more than your cost is not really an ethics issue, it’s a tax fraud issue unless you declare the extra reimbursement as taxable.
The other things are whether intentionally violating Ts&Cs in a contract of adhesion is unethical. Gray area.
Tax fraud – no grey area
In general, it’s like the email rule, if you are comfortable explaining what you wrote in your email in front of your boss, HR or your spouse, you are good to go … it works in reverse. I’m not flying to Cincinnati, sit around for 2 hours and switch planes to save the company $200 … or if I have to spend all day at a trade show, I’m having a $100 in room breakfast … but of course, it all depends on your seniority level … at some point, if you are pulling in mid 6-figures, grabbing that extra $100 in canceled credits means you are wasting your brainpower and time … just like taking the batteries out of the remote after you leave the hotel room … like carrying around a $.25 coupon next to your Platinum card to save on your next Blimpie sandwich … in other words, grow up.
@beachfan — Sounds like we shouldn’t defund the IRS, then. You know, like, actually fund the public servants and professionals who enforce those tax laws. And, they enforce the law, equally, not punitively or favorably to their perceived ‘political’ friends or enemies.
Ethical or not, if you own an incorporated business (or limited partnership), use the card for business expenses, then use the points for a family trip, you may have pierced the corporate veil and opened yourself up to liability in a lawsuit. If your employer is some faceless entity, sure, go ahead as long as you’re not told the company owns the points, but if it’s your personal company, you might want to consult a lawyer and/or accountant about if this opens up a can of worms you don’t want opened. At the very least, mixing personal and corporate assets is going to make for some expensive legal bills if your company is sued and doesn’t have the assets to cover a judgement.
Yup, I agree with Peter. Whoever pays the fee gets the benefit.
If you don’t agree, there’s another reason not to bring it up with the finance admin. I’ve found that trying to explain this dilemma results in suspicion forevermore. Like, why are you giving money to the company, are you crazy? And you’re creating a lot of hassle and work for someone who gets zero $ benefit. Ultimately, no one cares if the owner or shareholders are a few hundred bucks better off, they’d just like to get through the week without messing anything up. It’s often worth it to absolutely no one to attempt to do the right thing.