Not sure if I'm late to the party, but today I found out that after refunding a Delta flight I booked using the flight hack, only 1x Delta miles were clawed back
My card was upgraded through the gold-platinum-reserve ladder
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湘居鹏城1 week ago
心之洋1 week ago
Before requesting a refund, it's best to first confirm that the ticket has been issued and that more than 24 hours have passed.
睡醒了再说1 week ago
The upgrade path you mentioned can have different bonus structures depending on the region or the batch of Amex accounts. For example, with the same Gold-to-Reserve upgrade, some people have their points calculated based on the Reserve earn rate, while others have it calculated based on their historical average. In your case, did you book and refund the ticket shortly after upgrading, or was it a few months later? Was there any other Delta spending mixed in during that time? All of these factors can affect the clawback multiplier.
Refunds only claw back 1x — it probably depends on the rewards structure you had when you originally booked the ticket. If you went from Gold to Platinum and then to Reserve, the bonus multipliers differ at each stage, and when the system claws back, it may only deduct at the base 1x. The key is which rewards tier that flight-booking transaction actually triggered, and how Delta and Amex settle it between them.