Originally Posted by
dszrew
I had pre-booked a Hampton Inn stay back in December for this January and got a $50 credit. As rates dropped, I changed the existing reservation rather than cancel. However, the Hilton system wasn't set up to handle changing from an advanced purchase so when I checked in, rather than a credit for my stay I was charged again. the manager struggled to even find the credit, then determined refunding the credit was the easiest way to correct the issue. within 2 days the $50 credit was taken back. I have (not intentionally) gotten refunds on some other purchases with credits and not had the credit removed, but it does happen. Is it up to the merchant to catch that and then request the adjustment?
AmEx always inserts those "Terms" to guard for potential abuses. But there is cost to enforce those "terms". Most of those small "abuses" go off the radar. But the RATS team CAN get into some of the potential abuses with manual reviews. I'm not sure if AmEx computer systems can flag any of the potential abuses. But all flags would have to be manually verified. Without solid evidence, AmEx would not go after the abusers.
So I believe most of the abusers get away with all the "Terms" violations. AmEx certainly uses more resources to check on the new account bonus abuses, vs. the $30 Paypal abuse on buying gift cards.