I believe Happy is reporting that the Expedia credit resulted in a debit to her Ultimate Rewards earnings including a clawback of the Mall bonus:

Yes, this is what happens. You will not come out on top trying to buy refundable travel items with this card.

That is not necessarily the outcome. It is possible to cancel flight tickets and still retain the reward miles. It happened on one of my Chase cards. Without going into too many details, I cancelled the ticket and the refund occurred in a month in which I had no other purchases on the card, so there was no amount to offset. I waited until the account closed for the month, and asked Chase to send me a check for the credit amount in my account (the amount of the ticket refund), which they promptly did. Subsequent purchases on the card earned reward miles, with no offset.

By the way, I did not set out with the intent to achieve this result, and I am not recommending this scheme. But for someone worried about losing their minimum spend amount, there are other outcomes.

I booked the room I needed but travel plan changed so I had to cancel the room. It was a good rate better than the non-refundable rate on hotel's own website. Personally I try to book fully refundable hotel rooms whenever I can because my travel plans often change. What is the big deal to have prepaid couple hundreds for a room with a good rate, but was fully cancellable should I need it? I guess I fail to understand your logic - probably because it had never occurred to me how some folks may think this could earn them some extra points... :rolleyes:

I dont even know how Chase would account for the refund and the extra bonus point until it shows up the way it shows up - since someone asked about refundable tickets, I thought I might share the data point on how Chase handles refunded items.

To be honest, I am rather impressed by the way Chase has done it.
Equally to be honest, I am quite surprised and put off by some of you folks who always in the mode of scramble / scam for miles / points, and then assume everyone behaves like you...

What the heck you talk about?

Chase not only takes back the regular points earned, but ALSO the extra bonus point. Have you actually read what my post said? You will NOT get any extra points. Both the previously earned and bonus points are crawled back when an item is returned for credit.

I merely report back the way Chase handles refunded items since someone is thinking about using refundable tickets to meet the spend requirement. Apparently somehow due to existing mind-set or prejudice, some folks simply totally miss what the post said - which clearly said that both the earned and bonus points are taken back.

Besides, the hotel room I booked with Expedia was a room I needed. Travel plan changed so I ended up having a cancellation. Not everyone is like you who would always think about how to skim / scam whichever way you could to "earn" miles / points. :rolleyes:

Where does skimming and scamming come from? I simply did not understand what you were trying to say. Apparently I'm not the only one who didn't understand and I guess we all must be skim / scammers

Isn't that your previous post about my cancellation of Expedia booking?

I read it as you mean I purposely booked hotel rooms then cancel it 2 months later so just to get some points...

People do have travel plans and sometimes travel plans can change. What is wrong or "too much work" to book a fully refundable prepaid stay with Expedia / Travelocity / Orbitz / whoever which often has far better rates than even the nonrefundable rates on hotels' own websites? What is the big deal to "let Expedia hold my couple hundred dollar" while I can save almost $100 dollars without any risk? Unless your cash flow is so tight that you could not spare a couple hundred $ to save $100 dollar... then you lose out because that is 30% saving - a $300 booking can be had with only $200 fully refundable prepaid, as an illustration. Or may be you are math-challenged that you could not see the point other than the notion that you have to let "Expedia hold your money for couple months".

You are getting way too worked up about this. People (myself included) simply did not understand your post. Calling others "scammers" without any support really isn't necessary. Enough said....we're off topic. You are right and I am wrong. Does that make you "Happy"

UR Mall vs. Chase Travel
 

Apologies if this has been asked before - what is the best way to earn UR points from flight bookings - is it by
(a) booking tickets through Chase's own "Travel" planner section of the UR site or
(b) going through a partner like Hotwire/Travelocity where the UR Mall offers 2 extra points per $?

Thanks in advance!

B

Using the UR travel site only gets you 1 extra point. I'm really kind of surprised they offer the other travel sites and give you more points to use them:confused:

Yeah, me too.

Just remember if you use Hotwire for the hotel many chains will not give you their own reward points. Travelocity would probably a better alternative

I misunderstood what you were saying in the previous post. That is it. Never did I thought or suggested that you did the Expedia hotel on purpose. I just thought you might have happened to find a loophole in their system. But don't you think it is too much to call me a skimmer or scammer? Hey I was just discussing a potential (well non-existent) loophole.

Unless you get a real Bxxxtchy CSR after giving her info to the recon line she can authorize you to speak on her behalf. Since you are better versed in the process you can make your case to Chase for her.

I do this all the time for my wife .