Risks in booking a flight "just in case" Please help!

[Gozagswoohoo]

I've been monitoring some flights for a possible trip for 4-5 months now.  I noticed this morning that the price (points) are lower than I've ever seen them.  I'd say there's only about a 50/50, maybe 60/40, chance that I am able to go on this trip.  But, now seeing how cheap the flight is...I'm thinking of going ahead and booking it because I can now pay for the ENTIRE flight using my points.

My question is this, if I book the trip now, since I can pay for the entire thing with my points, but I am unable to go, can I get the points back when I cancel?  Or do I have to transfer to a different flight?  Or cancel by a certain date to get all of the points back?  How does that work?

Thank you!

[TheMiddleSeat]

Flights booked using points can be canceled up until 10 minutes before the flight and all points will be refunded back to the RR account they came from. Any taxes paid via credit card are also refunded or in some cases held as credit for a future flight.  No reason not to book it. 

Technically, you could just not show up for the flight and still get a refund, but cancelling is the preferred method. 

[DancingDavidE]

Especially if it is a full flight it would be nice to forgo your seat at the point you know you won't be flying so they can take standbys or sell some BS fares.