bonus point spending and returning an item

[compassion101]

Got the Delta Gold Amex a little over 3 months ago. It was 50k points for 2k spend in 3 months. I spent about 2300 on the card over that time period and have already been credited the 50k miles. Problem is, a $600 item I bought has to be returned. I talked to the store (Costco) and they said they could not issue a store credit, and that it has to go back to the CC.

I called Amex to see how they would treat this, fully expecting that the 50k bonus points would be taken away if I returned the item for a $600 credit. The CSR told me that I would keep the bonus even after the return, and would only lose the 600 or so points for the purchase. I asked him if he was certain, he put me on hold and then came to to say that he was, gave me his name and ID # in case I had any issues.

Is this a common policy? Has anyone else experienced returning like this and how did it work out?

[Anonymous]

You will not lose it.

[kdm31091]

You won't lose the bonus points, you will lose the points earned due to the purchase (i.e. whatever you were rewarded for the spend). The bonus is seperate, and won't be revoked.

[Open123]

It's a pretty common policy.

However, mired within the T&C of the bonus offering, there will be a clause (for most Issuers) to "clawback" the bonus earned if returns bring your spend below the threshold. In practice, similar to the "loading of prepaid" cards rewards exclusion, is never enforced, except in extreme cases.