Originally Posted by BigChair
paid for it with my xxx airlines credit card...had the refund credited to a different credit card (one that is with my primary bank)....
FWIW, I work for a retailer of high ticket items, and we NEVER check to make sure the refund is going onto the same card that was originally charged...we only verify that's it is the same person.
Although I have worked for the better part of the decade providing credit card payment processing and fraud screening services to major retailers, take this for what it's worth (i.e. free advice worth every penny).
If your employer does not verify that refunds are made to the same card, they're certainly in violation of their merchant acquiring agreement with the bank providing the processing services to them, and will be subject to action ranging from warning to penalty fees to ultimately the loss of their credit card accepting privileges in extreme cases.
If an employee at any of the major retailers I know was doing what you described for personal gain and their employer found out, they'd be reprimanded and/or terminated.
Sure, if you have the necessary 'moral flexibility', your employer has failed to put controls around this process, and you're doing it just once or twice, you can get away with it. If someone working for me was doing this and I found out, they'd be on the street within the hour. Well, maybe not on the street if it was the first instance, but certainly it would be a career-ending moment for them at my organization.
Sami