Originally Posted by platbrownguy

Just thinking about this as if it were me, I would probably spend an hour or two doing what you're doing. But after that, the heck with AA. They get their money back, but they don't get to impose transaction costs on me. I would call Amex and explain the situation. I would ask Amex to send me a check, which Amex is obligated to do anyhow, but with the understanding that I would have a negative rewards points balance for a little while (assuming you don't have the points to cover it -- although you might just have a 1x hit rather than a 5x hit, no?). And if AA was nonresponsive, I would simply send AA a check with 3% deducted to cover the points (assuming a 1x hit -- or 15% deducted if it's a 5x hit), which is a reasonable deduction based on Amex's fee for buying points.