I don't know what things you're trying to do that cause fees, but I've been using CCs pretty much exclusively (i.e. I try never to use cash) for the last 11 years or so, and I've never been hit with a single fee except when I forget to pay my bill on time, and then I just call and they refund the fee and finance charge without question.

The only fee I've ever had complaints with is the foreign transaction fee - that one is rather silly. But it just got me to change the CCs I use for travel, rather than anything else.

Anyway, whatever, you're right that this discussion is OT. I don't see how the OP's method would work, or the second method proposed with the paper check because that involved buying TWO tickets. The only way I see this working is buying the ticket on a rewards card, refunding it to a non-rewards card, getting the credit back from that non-rewards card and using it to pay the rewards card. But, getting the airline to refund your ticket to a different card than the one used for payment is going to be near impossible.