Over the past few days, several blogs have reported that buying United TravelBank funds may no longer trigger the American Express airline fee credit. The story picked up steam after Doctor of Credit first covered the change, with follow-ups from Frequent Miler, Miles to Memories, Live and Let’s Fly, and others.
If you’re not deep into the points-and-miles rabbit hole, that sentence might sound confusing. The short version: TravelBank purchases were never an officially published way to use the Amex airline fee credit — but for years, they often worked anyway. Sure, there were times when the credits took a while, and people got worried, but eventually things went back to the usual.
And honestly, that’s not the interesting part to me.
The bigger question is why people are reacting to this as a devaluation — and what that says about how we think about credit card perks right now.
The TravelBank Rumor Everyone’s Talking About
I’ve written before about how to use the airline fee credit the way it’s actually designed — like in my guides on maximizing the Amex airline credit and my procrastinator’s survival guide. Those posts focus on legitimate, repeatable strategies.
What I usually don’t do is publish step-by-step instructions for gray-area workarounds — even when they’re widely known — because those methods tend to exist in a fragile ecosystem. They work… until they don’t.
The United TravelBank situation falls squarely into that category. It wasn’t a secret. It was searchable, widely discussed, and easy enough to find if you were looking. But it also wasn’t something Amex ever advertised or guaranteed. In fact, the rules explicitly don’t include charges like these as triggers for the credit.
When A Workaround Starts To Feel Like A Benefit
This is a pattern we’ve seen for years in this hobby. A workaround appears. People try it. Word spreads. Eventually, enough cardholders rely on it that it starts to feel permanent — even though it never officially was.
I’ve talked before about how sweet spots and loopholes only exist because they’re allowed to — until they’re not. Once usage reaches a certain level, the issuer adjusts the coding, tightens enforcement, or simply changes how transactions are categorized.
And suddenly, something that felt like a feature turns out to have been a quirk all along.
Credits Aren’t Cash — And They Never Were
If you’ve been reading YMMV for a while, you know I’ve been skeptical of statement credits for years. In fact, I wrote an entire post about why Amex credits aren’t the same as cash.
The TravelBank conversation highlights that perfectly.
Credits are designed to drive specific behaviors — airline incidentals, travel portal bookings, dining partners, and rideshare. They’re not flexible currencies, even if we sometimes find ways to make them behave like it.
And lately, it feels like banks across the industry are tightening how those credits are enforced. It’s not just Amex. Chase, Citi, Capital One — everyone has leaned harder into complicated credit structures instead of straightforward perks.
Which leads to the bigger question: when a workaround disappears, did the card actually lose value… or did we just lose a shortcut?
It’s Not Just United: We’re Seeing More Enforcement Across Credits
The TravelBank rumor also doesn’t exist in a vacuum. Recently, there have been reports of American Express clawing back credits tied to certain Delta Stays bookings after transactions initially appeared to qualify.
That doesn’t mean anything shady happened. But it does suggest a broader trend: issuers are paying closer attention to how credits are being used and tightening enforcement when usage drifts outside the original intent.
Sometimes that means a loophole quietly disappears. Sometimes it means a credit posts — and then gets reversed later. Either way, it reinforces the same reality: these benefits are conditional tools, not guaranteed cash equivalents.
Did The Card Lose Value… Or Did Expectations Change?
This is where the conversation can get emotional.
Whenever a workaround stops working, some people frame it as a devaluation. And sure, if you were relying on that specific strategy, it probably feels like one.
But from a purely technical standpoint, nothing about the published airline credit changed. The dollar amount didn’t shrink. The official rules didn’t tighten. The card didn’t suddenly lose a stated benefit.
What changed was an unofficial way of extracting extra value.
That distinction matters — especially as more premium cards shift toward complicated credit structures that require effort (and sometimes creativity) to maximize.
The Real Trend: More Credits, More Complexity
Step back for a minute and look at the bigger picture. Over the past few years, premium cards have moved away from simple, flexible benefits and toward a stack of niche credits:
- Airline incidental credits
- Dining credits tied to specific partners
- Travel portal credits
- Monthly or quarterly lifestyle perks
Those benefits can absolutely add up — but they also create more gray areas, more edge cases, and more situations where cardholders try to stretch the rules a little further than intended.
And when those edges are cleaned up, it suddenly feels like something has been taken away.
Final Thought
This isn’t new. Banks close loopholes. They always have.
When they do, you can either adjust or you can sulk — but only one of those gets you anywhere. Ask yourself: was this unofficial workaround a core reason you kept the card? If yes, you need a replacement strategy. If not, then nothing fundamental changed, and you’re probably fine.
And here’s the part I don’t get: people threatening to cancel and telling the bank why — as if it’s some righteous protest. “I’m leaving because you stopped letting me use your benefit in a way you never officially allowed.” That’s not a mic-drop. That’s just you saying the quiet part out loud. Take the L, quietly close the account if you want, or go find your next workaround like the rest of us. That’s just the way the game is played.
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2 comments
Increase AF and add more “perks” that are useless without loophole = more profit
Coupon books are getting bigger and bigger with useless stuff so vote with your wallet and cancel cards
If you’re against the coupon book mentality, then I agree that you should cancel the cards which offer those benefits. But I don’t want to rule a card out just because it offers credits, if those are credits for things that I’d use anyway.