I did the gift card "trick" last year and it worked fine, but was talking to a friend about it and he said the way he does it doesn't involve a GC purchase as he simply books an international award ticket with heavy taxes and fees (UK tickets, for example) and then cancels the award ticket and retains the taxes and fees as a credit rather than CC refund. Why does everybody not do it this way instead of having to "invest" in the $50 GC first? Is there something I'm missing here?