found this thread for refunds and would like to know if it is still true:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showt...ghlight=refund

I would like to know if resv not printed can be fully refunded and if the amount appears on the card?

Yes, it is still true.

How about the charge appearing on the CC?

If the tickets were purchase using a credit card, the "refund" would be posted back to that same credit card as a credit. Unless you request to receive it as a voucher for future Amtrak travel.

Thanks, I meant the moment you purchase an Amtrak ticket but before you print it/ticket it, does the charge appear on the CC?

I would say yes. I've always have seen a charge (of say $58) and then after I cancel a credit (for $58), so my Amtrak charge would be $-0-.

I've also made a purchase at Home Depot, and gone out to my car and phoned my sister and found out she bought the same item that was needed. So I went back in and got a refund. My card showed both a charge and a credit - even though it was only 2 minutes!

Thanks, I was wondering if the charge would not post to the CC till it was printed/ticketed.

Nope, they process a charge on your card immediately when purchasing, and you will not be able to book the ticket if your card declines for any reason.

Credit card systems technically don't post charges immediately, though--they request an authorization through the card network, which confirms that funds are available and removes that amount from the cardholder's available credit, but the charge itself is not processed until the end of the day in a batch. (Even then, it won't show up on your card for three or so days, since the actual fund transfers are processed through the ACH system, which is not a realtime system. If you've ever used a bank which allows online ACH transfers, such as Citi, you'll know that these transfers typically take two to three days to process.)

It is possible for a merchant to request an authorization on your card but not process the charge itself until later. Some online merchants do this--in fact, Visa and MasterCard regulations state that merchants cannot charge your card until the product ships, so the merchant will place the authorization immediately upon ordering (so they can confirm you have the funds available) but not post the charge until the product ships. If you cancel the order, the merchant will simply never process the charge, and the held funds will revert back into your available credit in an indeterminate number of days (it depends on the bank that issues your credit card).

Some hotels and rental car agencies may also perform an authorization (they usually call it a "hold") on your card when you first arrive and won't process the charge itself until you leave. They may also authorize a larger amount than your estimated bill in order to cover incidentals (minibar purchases, extra days, damage to the rental car, etc.) but then only post whatever your actual charge is.

I say this because it is entirely possible for Amtrak (and other online companies, and, in fact, any company) to set up their systems to void out the charge if the transaction is canceled before the credit card batch is uploaded (it's always done only once per day), thus preventing you from seeing a charge and a corresponding credit on your card. (This would also save the company money, as they have to pay transaction fees even if the amount is credited back.) However, I have yet to find a company set up to do this--for one, it's a bit more complicated when a human is involved at the POS, since you have to train them to only void payments made before the batch is uploaded, and in a large company, it might not even be possible to communicate when the batch was uploaded (if they void one after the batch has already been sent, it screws records up!), and two, the available credit may be held on customers' cards for up to 30 days (again, depending on the card-issuing bank)--an amount of time the merchant has no control over. For people floating close to their credit limits, a charge and a credit, which posts in about three business days, will most likely release the money back to the available credit faster than waiting for the authorization to expire (the average authorization, I've found, lasts for about five to seven days). Of course, some banks are strangely slow to process credits--Wells Fargo debit cards seem to take an eternity, for some reason--even a charge and a credit uploaded in the same credit card batch will post to the customer's account days apart.

Not entirely sure where I was going with this, but I thought someone would find it interesting...

At least with my card (US BOA) the process seems more real time. The charges appear immediately as "pending" and then become firm charges in no more than a day (except for held charges like hotels and car rental). As for Amtrak, I had the opportunity to book and then immediately cancel a reservation when I accidentally entered the wrong date. The charge appeared first pending and then firm. A second credit-back transaction appeared a day later for the full amount of the original reservation.

Yeah, the BOA cards (and a couple other banks--MBNA pre-BOA used to, too) show "pending" charges--these are the authorizations. They're converted into charges when the batch is submitted by the merchant and BOA receives and processes the debits. As you said, hotel/car rental charges remain pending longer because they are not submitted in the batch until the end of the stay/rental--the charge is marked "authorization only" and is converted to a payment by the system upon check-out/return. It's a perfect illustration of how the system works.

I'm surprised your BOA stuff is processed that quickly--when I was more actively using my AS BOA card, I seemed to notice it taking more like two or three days, but I haven't been using that card much lately and haven't been watching. Maybe BOA processes ACH transactions more often than other banks and/or posts it to the customers accounts as soon as they receive the ACH data, whereas other banks might wait until the actual funds transfers are completely settled and finalized before posting the charge to the account.

To derail this thread further...

my BOA AS Visa seems to process fairly fast IME... especially when I ordered some more direct ship coins from the US Mint... and canceled so I had more credit available for AS PFD tickets. It only took a day or two to process, and hearing the horror stories of Wells Fargo, I was scared after canceling the order.