Originally Posted by
tuphat
Can someone post link to original article that's not behind a paywall (assuming that's not fraud, too)?
If you click on the original link and turn off your ad-blocker, you can read the article for free .............if you really want to
From the article
"In reality, Schwarze was exploiting a glitch in American’s computer systems. From January 2016 through October 2018, Schwarze bought gift cards online using his personal credit cards, then used those gift cards to buy airline tickets for family, friends and associates to travel across the globe, Assistant U.S. Attorney Hal Goldsmith said in court.Either before or after a flight, Schwarze would apply for a refund and then get that money refunded to his credit card, Goldsmith said. The money should have been refunded to gift cards that were nonrefundable, he said."
It appears that everyone was correct. He bought tickets using GCs, then cancelled the ticket or applied for a refund (perhaps without cancelling the ticket initially) and got the refund on the CC, not the used GC. However, it appears that the tickets were not cancelled. (This is my speculation).