Originally Posted by
mmxbreaks
You could do that anyway. If the voucher is spent, it's unlikely to be recoverable (depends how keen they'd get to nullify a booking I s'pose).
Not that this was ever my intention. In 2020 accounts I earned the voucher two or three times over. For 2021 that won't happen - no hotels, no flights, many refunds.
What Amex do is reasonable, sadly it catches those that keep the card long term versus those that churn. There are many cases of people buying refundable items with the sole intention of triggering the voucher, which is seemingly never cancelled once issued. Of course these people often cancel the card and have the refund paid to bank or another card, so never see the need to reach the higher target the following year.
if you value the voucher wouldn't you benefit from the paid card, if you did spend 2x or 3x the £20K in year 2020 the extra Avios alone would justify the fee, never mind the increased usefulness of a 2 year voucher.