Which airline do fast refunds?
 

I am intend to buy some full fare tickets knowing that I will cancel most of them. From your experience, which airline(s) provides fast refund to the CC once the tickets are cancelled? And do I need to call to get the refund faster? BYW, I don't have status with anyone.

Thanks.

Let me guess. Having trouble paying your credit card bill in full and you don't want a finance charge, so you'll buy some tickets and cancel them. When the total credits exceed your statement balance you end up getting a free ride on the finance charge for that month.

Of course, speed is of the essence as you need to make sure the credits post by the due date.

Am I close?

Southwest is pretty quick with refunds. Everything can be done on their website.

This is the reason why I have become addicted to this site. People who think outside the box.

Amazing idea, almost want to be cash poor and give this a try. :D

This really doesn't have anything to do with miles or points. I'll go ahead and move it to Travelbuzz, and even that's pushing it...

Regards,

Flipside

Let me give you a hint, my Chase MP Visa is having a double mile everything promotion (targeted) until 10/13. I trust you can come up with creative ways to get tons of free miles.

USAirways policy




Provide Prompt Ticket Refunds
Each airline will issue refunds for eligible tickets within seven business days for credit card purchases and 20 business days for cash purchases.

US Airways will refund fully-refundable unused tickets purchased by credit card within seven business days of receipt of the refund application. Refundable unused tickets purchased with cash or check will be refunded within 20 business days of receipt of the refund application. Eligible tickets include fully-refundable unused tickets with proper documentation.

All refund requests are entered into a tracking system by refund type, date of receipt and date of correspondence.

Customers may check the status of their refund request by calling US Airways at 480-693-6735.

That doesn't work because your statement balance is set for how much you have to pay ... any subsequent credits (after your statement is printed and has a statement balance) offset the later statement (and total outstanding balance), rather than the current statement. Interesting thinking though, credit for creativity!

FYI - Air Canada executive class fully refundable tickets refunded same-day on my credit card - I've had to do it once or twice.

When I sit down to pay my credit card bills I always look at what credits have posted since the last statement. Having no desire to give the CC companies use of my money any earlier than necessary, I deduct that number from the statement balance, and I pay the difference. I never get finance charges or any other fees for doing this.

PS: If you live in PG&E land you can also get away with paying your Gas & Electric every other month with no fees.

Low cost airlines are pretty good with refunds: WN, B6, etc

I've also had pretty good experiences with UA.com's automated refund requests.

I have never flied with WN and B6. Looks like Air Canada is the winner.

Thanks a lot.

You plan on buying thousands of dollars worth of airline tix, in order to get miles?
I understand that you will not pay any money for it, but is it worth it for so few miles?

If I play it safe, I can get about 30k miles, if I want to be aggressive, >60k.

Im confused...wouldn't the credits from the refund wipe out any points from purchasing the tickets? Aren't most CC reward programs points on NET charges, meaning purchases-refunds. If you buoght 10000 and then returned 10000, you wouldn't get anything, right?

Here is my theory/hope, I buy $30k worth of tickets during the double mile promotion, and earn 60k miles, once the billing cycle closes and the miles post, I will cancel the tickets and get the refund, since the refund happened in a billing cycle that's only 1 for 1, the bank will only retract 30k miles, leaving me a net 30k gain. And if the refund post fast enough, I don't have to make any payment.