Originally Posted by
Gasolin
Because it's not as if the value of the service purchased was any different. It's a commercial gesture, on a service that has been already paid for.
I get it if you return objects or whatever can be returned as you don't own it, but the service I received for the price doesn't disappear just because the service company decides they want to do me a commercial favor.
I believe in most cases if a merchant credits you back against a transaction, for whatever reason, Amex refunds the merchant all or nearly all of the ~2-3% merchant fees which the merchant had paid for the original transaction, and which play a major role in funding the rewards Amex gives to customers. (In some cases if an intermediary processor like Square is involved, it sounds like Square doesn't always refund the merchant, but I believe Amex still refunds Square.) So Amex literally has no money from the refunded portion of the transaction with which to give you rewards.