I'm new to the CC "game", but getting into it (as evidenced by my arguably excess posting on the topic lately).
This is a question about "tricks" to hitting the spending level required to trigger the bonus.
I saw that when spending was a little shy of the trigger amount, people purchased Amazon gift cards, which, for an Amazon shopper, is like money in the bank.
This might have been posted before, but I didn't see it if so, but I wondered about buying a fully refundable airline ticket for a flight scheduled sometime, say 9 months out. You pay the CC bill for the air ticket, say it's $3000 and triggers the bonus. Spend another $500 on "this and that", then apply the bonus. You're at a zero balance now, after two months, and you've collected your bonus. Now you cancel your flight and have a credit balance of $3000. Over the next "unlimited amount of months" you spend that $3000, getting you to a zero balance again. So you basically prepaid your spending on that card, but in so doing, you triggered the bonus early.
I'm sure I'm not the only one to think of this, so I just wondered if those who know more about the game than I do know of any flaws in the scheme. I'm not sure credit card companies would care because you did spend the amount of money required within the time frame, and if you get that money back, you're going to have to re-spend it anyway. Thoughts? Experience? SGOTI Wisdom?