Originally Posted by
deant
The other problem is that when you return the item, they will reduce your number of miles accordingly. Unless, of course, you return the item on a different card or for cash. Most merchants will not provide a credit on anything other than the card that it was purchased.
There is a thread on buying dollar coins from the mint with a credit card. That is the closest thing to buying a bond.
I've had a few times where I had a substantial refund (a few thousand dollars) and both times I called Amex and asked them to send me a check. They were a little slow getting it to me but I did get it and it allowed me to earn my normal amount of SPG points. Now I didn't do this for the points, it was a legitimate refund. I will have a similar occurrence this month with a $4k refund (paid for baseball postseason tickets but team didn't make playoffs).