What happens with CC reward points when purchases get canceled?

[JLMoran]

When Cruise Planner purchases get canceled and refunded back to my Celebrity Rewards Visa, do the points that were gained on the original purchase get taken back as well? Or do I get to hold on to those and then get even more points when I re-buy on the Cruise Planner for the Lift & Shifted sailing?

Not my first rewards card, but it is the first one where I'm going to be looking at a significant number of refunded purchases. Some of them sizable, like my airfare bought through Flights by Celebrity.

[Ogilthorpe]

I am making the assumption that the Celebrity Rewards Visa works like the RCL Rewards Visa and, from my experience, points are removed by the same rules as they are applied. I'm not sure what happens if that results in a negative rewards balance.

[JLMoran]

28 minutes ago, Ogilthorpe said:

I am making the assumption that the Celebrity Rewards Visa works like the RCL Rewards Visa

Your assumption is correct. Same card, different branding.

Thanks for the info. It makes sense, otherwise people could just cancel and rebuy and cancel and rebuy until they've got enough points for a free cruise! 

[Ogilthorpe]

3 minutes ago, JLMoran said:

otherwise people could just cancel and rebuy and cancel and rebuy until they've got enough points for a free cruise! 

Very true! There were well documented cases of that in the early days of Airline miles reward cards. Using the existing rules, there were some that were purchasing Travelers Checks (I said  'early'! ) which would avoid cash advance fees by rule. They would turn them around ... and repeat creating enormous rewards balances. Of course, this lead to rules changes.

[Baked Alaska]

For our cancelled Oasis March 2020 cruise, BOFA (RCCL VISA) shifted the points to our Alaska 2021 sailing. They would not put them bank in the points bank, as it were.

 

[Atlantix2000]

Years ago, when the government introduced dollar coins, they had a promotion where you could order the coins and receive them with free shipping.  The government thought this would encourage people to get the coins into circulation.  Instead, people ordered large quantities of the coins on their credit cards, received them for free, and immediately deposited them in their bank account.  Note that this was back in the days when you got decent interest rates in a savings account.  Then, you just pay your credit card bill on time....FREE MONEY!!!

[Matt]

For my cancelled Alaska cruise, I got my points back instantly from Chase.

[bestestboss]

our march 2020 cruise was cancelled by rccl and our fees were refunded. but our rccl credit card points were not. after numerous phone calls back and for i was told points would not be credited back. instead i was told to keep original booking number and rebook a new cruise cross referencing the cancelled cruise with new one. the points were worth $1000 off 4 night cruise so this is the current policy as per rccl and bank of america . the points value would then be applied to new cruise.

hope this helps

[JLMoran]

@Matt / @bestestboss, appreciate the info. But in my case I'm looking at points that are still unredeemed on the credit card. So let's just say I have 50,000 points right now for a round number. I was trying figure out whether after some item was refunded due to cancellation -- say, my $1,400 airfare (2,800 points because booked with Celebrity) was refunded -- would my point total on the card still be 50,000, or would it now be 47,200.

Based on the earlier answer from @Ogilthorpe, sounds like it would be 47,200.

[Ogilthorpe]

3 minutes ago, JLMoran said:

 

Based on the earlier answer from @Ogilthorpe, sounds like it would be 47,200.

@JLMoranYes, this exactly the way it worked for me.