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I recently made a mistake when booking a business class ticket with my Amex Business Platinum. I’d entered the wrong return date and cancelled immediately after booking. It reminded me of an occurrence I faced last year when I cancelled an Amex Travel booking and wanted the points back. The points aren’t refunded, and instead the cash is – this is a backdoor into getting 1 penny per point credit, but I use points at far higher valuation and wanted the points.
Ordinarily, I don’t like to use Amex points to book travel via Amex Travel; however, the Amex Business Platinum gives a 35% rebate on premium cabin fares and those booked with your airline of choice.
This presented a situation where a crazy business class fare hits and the points needed to book a cash fare ( when factoring in the 35% rebate ) is less than I’d pay to transfer to a partner. I booked the tickets, redeemed points, but then canceled within an hour. Here’s the conversation I had with Amex…
As you can see…the points aren’t automatically refunded. You need to request to get points back. What does this mean?
The ticket I purchased was roughly $2200 and 220k points were deducted immediately at the time of purchase. That creates a $2200 purchase on my statement which is automatically offset with a credit of $2200. It nets out to zero. Historically, after you take the first leg, you’ll get the 35% back…or 77k points.
If I cancel the ticket within 24 hours, $2200 is credited again on my account essentially liquidating the points for a penny a piece. If I want points refunded instead of the credit I need to contact them to get those credited. It would go something like this:
If you cancel your Amex Travel reservation and want the points back, you’ll need to Message Amex via Chat or call in to do so.
Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed or approved by any of these entities.
Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card
Welcome Offer
Earn 60,000 bonus points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening.
Annual Fee
$95
Points Earned
Transferrable Chase Ultimate Rewards
- 5x on all travel purchased through Chase Travel℠
- 3x on dining, including eligible delivery services for takeout & dining out
- 3x on select streaming services
- 3x on online grocery purchases
- (excluding Target, Walmart and wholesale clubs)
- $50 Annual Chase Travel Hotel Credit via Chase Travel℠
- The begins immediately for new cardmembers and after your account anniversary for existing cardmembers
- 2x on all other travel
- 10% Anniversary Bonus
- Every year you keep the card, your total spend will yield a 10% points bonus. If you spend $10k in a year, you’ll get 1k bonus points
- Chase Sapphire Preferred continues to redeem at 1.25c in the Chase Travel℠ and the slew of other benefits remain in tact including Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver ( primary ), purchase protections, etc.
- Points are transferrable to 14 Ultimate Rewards partners
- Redeem in Chase Travel℠ for 1.25 cents per point
- No foreign transaction fees
- Suite of Travel and Purchase Coverage
- Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver is my favorite
- Get complimentary access to DashPass which unlocks $0 delivery fees and lower service fees for a minimum of one year when you activate by December 31, 2027.
- $95 Annual Fee
We keep an up to date spreadsheet that lists the best ever offers: You can find that spreadsheet here.
Historically 80k is a very, very good offer and hit in both 2022 and 2023. In 2021, we saw the offer hit an all time high of 100k. Who knows if that will ever come back.
Main Cast:
Cards that earn flexible points and should be used on the bulk of your purchases.
Supporting Cast:
Cards that earn fixed points in the currency of the airline/hotel and can not be transferred at attractive rates. These cards yield benefits that make it worth keeping, but not necessarily worth putting a lot of your everyday spend on.
The Chase Sapphire Preferred® is exceptional starter card and offers transferrable Ultimate Rewards, and pairs well with other Chase cards.
If you carry this card alongside Chase’s cashback cards like the Chase Freedom Flex® and Chase Freedom Unlimited® or the business versions: Ink Business Cash® , Ink Business Unlimited® you can combine the points into Preferred account and transfer into hotel and airline partners
Annual fee is quite low at $95 a year + you get a 10% anniversary bonus on points + $50 hotel credit in Chase travel.
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