Getting Credit Card Flight Bonus

Is there a way for me to use the credit card and get the money back (to my bank) without losing 2-3% in the process? or with a really low cost?

‘manufactured spending’

The US Mint used to have a program that tried to get $1 coins into circulation. To encourage this, they would let people order quantities of $1 coins, pay with a credit card (no fee to the customer), and then ship the coins to the customer with no shipping charge. So a person would order thousands of dollars of coins, and when the coins arrived at their home, they would cart them off to their bank to be deposited into their account, which they would then use to pay the upcoming credit card bill within the grace period (thus incurring zero CC interest). People racked up shitloads of FF miles using this perfectly legal scheme before the Mint caught on and ended the promotion (since it was not getting the coins into circulation as they had hoped).

Someone recently found a similar loophole. A change machine in an arcade sold quarters at face value, and allowed users to pay with a credit card, no fee. This would have allowed the same sort of scheme as above, but of course a change machine probably isn’t stocked with enough quarters to make it worthwhile, and the arcade owner would probably trespass you the first time he saw you walking out of his establishment with forty pounds of quarters.

There was another, similar loophole, in which one of the AAA affiliates (or was it all of them?) would let you buy travelers checks with a credit card. So people were buying thousands of dollars in travelers checks and then just depositing them in the bank.

Edited to add, there are websites and message boards where people will post any such deal that they find.

This is your google juice. There are a lot of ways to do it. You’re going to lose a percentage of each transaction in fees no matter what scheme you choose. You have to decide whether the built in losses will be more or less than the value you get from your credit card rewards.

If the CC company makes a determination that you are doing this, they will remove all your miles, so be careful.

By the way, there are many alternatives to earning frequent flyer program miles. I just switched to an Amazon rewards credit card that earns points with which I can buy stuff at Amazon, but perhaps a hotel rewards program card or auto manufacturer rewards card would be better for you.

Since the OP is specifically interested in “flight bonus,” here’s a site to start learning about what is called “travel hacking”:

Also, some airline mileage credit cards offer perks beyond just earning miles, such as a free checked bag, priority boarding or access to the airport lounge. If you fly one airline often enough, these benefits might be worthwhile.