Introduction
I had written about one option already. However, I didn’t want to go that route since I have over $7K in Amazon credit right now. I also didn’t want to go this route either because of the lost opportunity cost of actually charging $200 on my Alaska Visa for 3X miles, hence losing out on 600 miles. After typing that last sentence out, I realize this is really petty in the grand scheme of things.
Option C
Instead of writing out the trick, which I don’t want to do [to avoid search engines,] They say a picture is worth a 1,000 words, so let’s just go with a picture.
Things you need to know though – 1. Make sure you pick AS first. 2. Keep it under $100 3. You can cancel ONLINE within 24 hours, so no need to talk to a live human and 4. You MUST cancel within 24 hrs. Lastly, no clawbacks. Enjoy:
Can anyone else confirm if they see the clawback now? I had booked ticket under $100, it took 3 days, the credit came in. Then the refund did, then the credit went away.
Mine have stuck..
I think the key here is for the refund to post BEFORE the creds do. otherwise the system auto adjusts, seems like thats how its programmed.
hmm so this didnt work for me… I booked on 1/21 (thur) the night of this post (and cancelled around 22 hrs later) … the charges remained pending until 1/25 (mon) and they seemed to have dropped off now (tue morn) completely (guessing the refund processed that quick)… they never even posted and thus I never got the credit… not sure why my transactions took so long – maybe cause of the weekend adding to the delay?
can you post a bit more about your timeline — which date did you actually make your purchase? how long did it take for your transaction to post assuming 1/4 above in your screen is the post date (and not the transaction date)? … based on that I might try to book on sun or mon, to see if the intended result can be achieved during the week by fri at the latest.
hmm interestingly enough, creds posted over the weekend. so this was my timeline:
1/21 – booked tix (visible as posted transaction around 1/25)
1/22 – cancelled rez
1/24 – refund (visible 1/26)
1/31 – ax creds posted (visible today 2/1)
hopefully they arent clawed back. Vinh, did your mom’s AS creds ever post & did they stick?
so you ran it a 2nd time? my mom’s never posted; the charges just fell off. seems like you tried it a 2nd time and on a week day this time? Mine have stuck.
nope, this is from last week! see my corresponding comments on this post on 1/21 😉
I was going to try again today, cause its a Mon and wanted to follow your wkday timeline/schedule. cause last time it was towards the end of the wk and now I know it just delayed everything a bit.
anyways, I just so happened to check my AX acct again this evening (they werent visible when I checked in the AM) and much to my surprise + delight, the airline creds had already posted or rather were finally showing up now. so didnt have to rerun the ‘experiment’ a 2nd time.
i just checked my mom. i got the credits. so no need for a 2nd run.
now I really wanna hear the story on how you racked up $7k in AMZ creds, damn lol. something to be said about floats.
p.s. AS doesnt sell GCs anymore so are we talking about gift certs then? but looks like those can only be bought in fixed $ amt (and more importantly T&Cs say they are non-refundable) so that doesnt match w/your screenshot.
so finally, are we actually talking about buying refundable AS tix here?
BW, read that last paragraph again.
I did. several times. thus my Qs above!
any more hints as to routes that price out in that way – so as to get as close to $200 as possible?
Dude BW. Just play with the routes. Alaska is based in Seattle, so start there. Shouldn’t take you more than 3 searches. Plus, I told you <$100.
lol already booked like 2 mins after my last comment. lets see the magic come thru 😉 also realized another key thing (for future.) so what I’m saying is thanks for the post!
You know, I did my mom’s over the weekend and same thing happened as you; charges never posted. I did mine at 5pm on a weekday and cancelled at noon following day.
with a date of 1/4 in the screenshot I assume that weekday was Mon (when you did yours?) I’ll try running this experiment again before 5pm next Mon and see if it works.
now I really wanna hear the story on how you racked up $7k in AMZ creds, damn lol. something to be said about floats.
$7k in Amazon credit? Damn man. Unlikely that Bezos is gonna take that money and run, but still!
Yeah that’s why I need to find stuff on there to resell on eBay!
Neat! Any word if it works with other airlines? I know you’ll just tell me to test myself and report, and I will if no one else has yet.
No, I don’t think so but you can try.
It does work on some other airlines. A bit of digging will uncover which.
Interested to hear if it woks with United!