Has anyone ever received "negative" points on your monthly frequent flier statement due to a high dollar value of returns? I ask this in regards to 2 separate scenarios:

1) In Jan, charge $5000 in various transactions. Get 5000 added to my AA account. In Feb, only charge $1000, and return $3000 worth of items to the stores where bought. I know that my credit card bill will show a credit of $2000, but will the credit card company report the negative balance to AA and I have points deducted from my FF program?

2) Bank ABC is offering a bonus. If I buy $5000 worth of tickets on AA, in addition to the 5000 points I get for those charges, they will also give a bonus of 2500 points. If I buy those tickets, pay the bill, and then return the tickets, I'm back at scenario #1 above. But taking it one step further, will the 2500 bonus points be taken away?

Don't know that there is a uniform response to your question.

I have received negative points on a statement due to returns exceeding purchases. This occurred on a CitiCard ThankYou Points card.

Bonuses are a little trickier. I would think they could be at risk, but it might be harder for them to track then the first scenario.

You won't receive negative points on your credit card or your FF balance but the next $2,000 in charges will not accrue new points.

Example:
Month 1: Spend $3,000 get 3,000 miles.
Month 2: Return $2,000, spend $1,000 (You earn 0 miles. Miles from Month 1 were already reported to the airline and cannot be deducted by the bank)
Month 3: Spend $1,500 - you earn 500 miles on purchases since the $1,000 is still accounting for the $2,000 return.

Hope this clears things up. This is only true for airline programs. If it is a points program managed by the bank they may indeed be able to deduct points.

My statements have shown negative points, and I have had points taken away in the Priority Club Rewards program --- so the bank did take away program miles (not the bank's program, but the hotel chain program). For AA MC, the statement showed negative points, but they didn't take away points from my account --- new purchases just won't earn any points until the point total turns positive again as the previous poster said. If you close the account before you go positive, I'm not sure what will happen. I'm also not sure about the bonuses, but in most cases the bonuses will not be awarded until many months into the future (like 8-10 weeks) --- so if you return, they will not award you the bonus.