Olga_NYC

A few weeks ago I crossed over a second threshold for Delta Reserve MQM bonus (15K MQM X 2 after spending $60K). Hoping the bonus miles will be deposited into my Skymiles account this month, and would then roll over into my 2018 MQM's sometime in January.

One of the purchases that took me over the second threshold is for a hotel reservation in December of 2018. I will only keep this reservation if I can get a decent price on the airfare, which doesn't get released until February 2018. What would happen to these bonus MQM's if I decide to cancel my hotel reservation in February or March? Has something like this ever happened to anyone?

jspira

My guess is a clawback.

mia

We do know that American Express's IT system tags the specific transaction that crosses a spending threshold, and that if that transaction is reversed it can trigger an audit. However, there is very little discussion of Delta cards in the American Express forum, and I don't think we know if an audit would result in the retraction of status miles. I am moving this thread to the Skymiles forum where there is a higher concentration of posters who use this card.

MSPeconomist

IIRC there have been reports of MQMs being clawed back and status being downgraded. IIRC there have also been reports of status being lost when the MQD waiver spend is lost due to returns. Otherwise, it would be far too easy to make a big purchase near the end of the year and then return it early in January. In fact, we could do this without leaving home with a nice expensive TPAC ticket in FULL J, and DL certainly doesn't want to encourage such behavior.

However, is the OP sure that the hotel has been prepaid (versus merely a credit card guarantee?) and, if so, that the prepayment is refundable? There aren't many hotels that demand big credit card deposits versus either just a guarantee and card number to hold a flexible reservation or full prepayment with no real possibility of a refund on "cheap" advance purchase nonrefundable rate plans. Moreover, some high end resorts that want big deposits don't normally accept credit cards for this, although such rules are vanishing quickly.

Can't OP just spend enough on the DL AmEx card before the end of the year so that the spend requirement is satisfied even if the hotel reservation is cancelled and a refund is obtained.

dmarge18

Maybe a stupid question, but was the hotel room pre-paid? Usually pre-paid rooms are non-refundable, and hotel rooms don't charge you until you check in. Just wondering.

MSPeconomist

That's what I said, although in the USA and at least some other countries (IME Portugal was a recent exception), the hotel charges you when you check out, not at check in.

Olga_NYC

The resort (there are two rooms actually) are pre-paid through Travelocity, but the reservation is fully refundable until December 19 of next year. I verified their policy a few times before booking, just because of the amount of $$ at stake. It is clearly stated as refundable on my confirmation.

The reservation totals $14K which I am not likely going to be able to spend in the next 31 days. I would most certainly spend more than that in the next 3 months before the airfares get released and I have to start making decisions on cancelling it or not. However, since it would be after 12/31, I am worried about the claw-back.

matthew64832

They may try a clawback but it's usually something you can argue about. If you're spending 5-8k on the card each month and you wait until next summer to cancel the hotel (which you said is refundable until next December) you likely can raise a stink enough that they would leave the old MQM boost alone.

DLDiamond2013

I agree. Since the hotel is refundable until December 19, 2018, if you do end up needing to refund it, I would wait until very late in 2018 right before you can’t do it anymore, and process the refund then. It would be nearly 12 months past the 2017 cutoff for MQM boosts at that point, and they should have other fish to fry than do a very late clawback then.

Zorak

This is purely my speculation, but I would guess the result depends on the amount in question and how much you spend on the card subsequently.

I.e. I would think that if you pass $30/$60K by a single transaction which gets refunded with no further spending activity, is probably different than if you continue to spend in 2018.

So unless you plan to stop using the card entirely, I wouldn't be too worried.

Although the advice to wait as long as possible seems to make sense too.

Olga_NYC

Thanks everyone. I think that’s a good idea; I will see what happens when the airfare get released, maybe will even hold off on buying them for a few months to see if the prices go down. This card is used almost daily, so hopefully Amex will not try to make an example out of me if I do have to return.