Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, many flights, resort vacations, and cruises were canceled, and getting refunds from travel companies was not always easy.

It can be more difficult to get your money back if you booked a trip using travel reward points with a credit card.

James Carr from Kirtis, Ontario said: "The travel reward points total 500,000 points, which are worth $5,000 USD."

Carr said he booked a trip to Puerto Rico to take a Caribbean cruise with his partner for May 2020, but it was canceled due to COVID.

Carr saved 493,484 points using his Scotiabank American Express credit card.

By using the points and paying an additional $145, he was able to pay for the cruise package which cost a total of $5,080.

Carr said: "We decided not to go on the cruise, it was canceled, and the points were returned to my credit card."

With the points restored to his credit card and nowhere to go during the pandemic, Carr said he never thought about it. However, when he checked his card later, he said the points had disappeared.

Carr said: "There was a $50 annual fee on the credit card that I didn’t pay because I wasn’t aware of it, and they canceled the card."

Carr said that when he contacted Scotiabank to complain, he was asked to open a new credit card and the points would be transferred to the new card, but he said that despite many phone calls, the points did not return.

Carr said: "It's been going on for two years." CTV News Toronto reached out to Scotiabank, and Andrew Garas, Director of Canadian Banking Communications with Scotiabank, said in a statement, "Scotiabank cannot comment on specific customer matters for privacy reasons, but in this case, we worked directly with the customer and resolved the complaint to his satisfaction."

Carr said after CTV News Toronto contacted the bank, he recovered his points within days, which was good news for him as he will now get $5,000 worth of reward points to use on a future trip.