true true, regarding CC fees. In general--especially if you are a good customer with decent history and credit, the CCs these days will refund most everything if you present a decent valid case about it. I guess I was focussing more on the bad fees of the airlines, and so in my mind, sometimes I feel as though I wish I could find a way to get them back for all the stupid fees we have to pay for things like the phone in fee for award tickets (even when their own sites could not handle a similar booking so we HAD to call) or the redeposit of unused miles fee, etc. All those make people mad and want to lash out.

As for the refund ticket thing, I have actually heard of and looked into methods of things such as having a debit card and bank account with say, CITI and also a CC with Citi. You buy something on the CC but somehow get them to return the money to your debit account. Same bank, same world. Could be potentially done but I dunno how yet.