Cancelling flight-receiving credit

American is totally unreasonable doing business with.

Are you saying AA may not honor a credit, R1?

From a June 2022 WaPo article:

American Airlines

American had a pre-pandemic policy that customers dealing with illnesses or health-related issues before their flight may be able to get a refund depending on the circumstance. If you have the coronavirus and want a refund, contact the company’s reservations team (linked below) to make your case.

R3

I’ve never had a problem using a flight credit for any major US airline. I remember it not being super helpful because of the change fees in the past. But I think they might have done away with those during the pandemic.

Aw R4, you have me blocked.

Yes, you can just cancel on their website or on the AA app. The value of your ticket will be available to use as a credit on a future flight, usually within a year.

Unless you booked a Basic Economy fare, those are nonrefundable and will be forfeited if you cancel.

Yes. On AA you can cancel online and a flight credit will be deposited into the AA wallet of each flyer -- if you have an AAdvantage number. The passenger gets the flight credit not the person who purchased the ticket (unless they are the same).

Yes, in most cases, you should be able to cancel online and get a credit for a future flight. If you know the dates you wish to rebook to, you can try to change your flights online.

I had to cancel a flight on American last year due to being ill as well (speedy recoveries BTW OP!)--it was a real rigamarole to rebook with the flight credit. The credit never showed up on my online mileage account, but maybe it was due to booking with a 3rd party website and not American directly. I eventually got the credit back and was able to use it, but it took a few phone calls and probably an hour or so on the phone. Pain in my ass!

R10 That's exactly what went wrong. You booked third-party, you cheap bitch!

Thanks R10. I’ve learned my lesson about booking directly with airlines, hotels and rental car companies. I use third party sites to comparison shop and then go direct when I’m ready to book. We’re so disappointed to have to cancel. It was just a simple trip to New Orleans. We’ve both been a couple of times, so it’s really about the food and slightly warmer weather now. It sucks that we waited two and half years to travel (went to NYC two weeks ago) and that’s probably how we ended up both getting Covid. It was about ten days after we returned that the major symptoms started hitting and we realized it wasn’t just a cold.

OP, why do you need to reschedule? By next week (seven+ days from today, I presume), you shouldn’t be contagious.

Lol I have so many friends who whine about customer service on trips, then I find out they used a 3rd party app. Like, what did you expect? Scraping the bottom of the barrel will always get you scraps. It’s the same type that complain about customer service out loud instead of just taking their business elsewhere or exacting your revenge on the person quietly and elegantly. What an ugly world we live in.

Can’t you just ask your credit card company to refund you? My cc includes travel insurance as one of the benefits (I think?) so I just call them and ask them to reverse the charge.

That typically means that the merchant blacklists you, though. Right R15?

R16 probably I suppose yes. It was one of those flights rescheduled 5 times and then canceled situations so maybe I won’t be.

That’s the hope R13, but we’re both really not feeling well. I thought I was better today and then the joint aches kicked in. I plan on waiting until the weekend to make a decision.

R15 That's an abuse of the chargeback process, you idiot. The CC won't burn themselves and the merchant just because you have to change your plans.

Travel insurance would work, maybe.

R19 I said travel insurance was part of the cc deal. And idk if you saw my other post but it wasn’t me changing my plans it was the airline changing the flight numerous times and then eventually canceling it. I wanted to rebook but they wouldn’t honour the amount I had paid (relatively inexpensive bc I booked in advance) and wanted me to pay more because by the point they canceled it it was far more expensive bc the flight was only a couple of weeks away. Chill out.

R11 In my defense, it would've all worked out had I not gotten sick and had to cancel. The third party websites are a total gamble. I never win in Vegas either.