Based on posts on this thread and its predecessors, and the multiple PMs I’ve received, it’s good to see that the “make reservation with deposit, get AmEx Hilton statement Credit, cancel reservation, get refund of deposit, net $200” gambit is now well accepted here at FT.

I may be the first who described this procedure having serendipitously stumbled upon it during COVID restrictions when I legitimately booked a ski trip and then legitimately decided to cancel. In late 2023 I was severely chastised and warned of clawback and other adverse actions.

I’ve now done this once or twice a year for 4-5 years, across multiple different variations of the credit, mostly on my same 7 year old Aspire card. I’ve never experienced clawback or any other discernable adverse action (unless termination of my 14-16 approved NLL offers is considered “adverse”).

Few lessons learned along the way:
- I always book a resort hotel at which I’ve stayed several times and will likely (award) stay again (plausible deniability).
- I time the reservation & credit & cancellation refund for a statement on which I have other activity on my mostly sock-drawered Aspire card, including my once or twice annual actual Hilton stay (plausible deniability).
- Initially I tried to time it so that the statement credit and hotel refund would be on different statements by cancelling the reservation a few weeks after the statement credit posted. I no longer do that, in fact I try to have it all appear on the same statement (paperwork reduction). Nowadays I cancel the reservation a day or 2 after the statement credit posts.
- Occasionally the Hilton refund is not automatically processed upon cancellation. If I don’t see the refund within 7-10 days I call the hotel (not central reservations).
- Some Hilton deposits post 1-2 full business days after making the reservation, unlike a UA TB charge which posts instantaneously.