Originally Posted by Lionheart

Interesting that this seems so clear cut to others.

As a casual IHG member, I would always believe that the deposit is your points. And so you will lose the points you booked with (The deposit, is after all, your 120,000 points).

Of course the others here know what they are talking about & are almost certainly technically correct, but as a consumer/customer, it's very easy to argue that you have been misled & your CC should be all over it as an unauthorised / fraudulent transaction if needs be.

Deposit: "a sum payable as a first instalment on the purchase of something or as a pledge for a contract, the balance being payable later."

You can prove what your deposit was (120,000 points) and that these points are non-refundable. Therefore you lose your deposit of points, you've made no cash deposit whatsoever. Very simple for a credit card company Unless they have a different definition of deposit, they are ambiguous.