inpd

Hi,

Bought a $1500 non-refundable flight to Europe due to leave on Sunday.

Now I may not be able to go due to a family illness. Nothing serious, just sick kids, but I prefer not to go.

So what are my options. I see that on AA.com there is a "cancel itinary" button. What happens if I click it? Do I get the fare back less some cancellation fee? Or something else?

Thanks in advance.

TRVLUPGD

Unless a doctor writes a " you cannot travel because you are under treatment " letter you do not have many choices.

Lastresort is to call up, plead with a supervisor .Most you will get is a credit to be used within a year.

jridge

"Non-refundable" means you won't get a refund except for very limited circumstances such as: death of passenger, schedule change, travel waiver (e.g. war, weather, strike, ...).

However, if you book another ticket, AA will essentially give you "store credit" for what you paid, less the change fee (generally around $300 to Europe). Travel on the new ticket needs to be within a year of the date the original ticket was purchased.

If there aren't circumstances justifying a refund, and if you don't book another ticket, then you'll get nothing - really no way around that.

inpd

Thanks. So do I cancel the ticket using itinerary cancel and then I get back $1500 less $300 as an e voucher?

mvoight

Generally, you keep track of the ticket number and apply it (less then the fee) to the purchase of a new ticket. This ticket must be purchased within 1 year of your original purhase date. The remaining value will be sent to you in a voucher.

sbrower

Yes, you do almost certainly do need to cancel before travel. (Many non-refundable tickets now provide that if you don't cancel, you lose 100% of the ticket.)

nrr

There is the possibility that your flight gets cancelled, in which case you would get 100% back; so you can wait to cancel your reservation until close to BUT before flight time.

bdemaria

No, your ticket remains live and when you are ready to rebook another flight, you call in & they will apply the value to that ticket.

camachinist

Hope for a schedule change or cancellation or, last resort, call day of prior to and cancel and take the change fee hit when re-booking.

On UA, when canceling before flight, the ticket's value is available for one year from *ticketing* date so, if AA is the same (think it is) be sure to notate the ticketing date, which could be long in the past. For example, if you booked the flight six months ago and cancelled today, you'd retain the value of the ticket for six more months. After that, poof. Someone else has already mentioned that but I wanted to emphasize it because it's easy to forget things one has done in the distant past. The airline computer doesn't forget

The value retained will apply to any ticket, anywhere, of course after the change fee is collected.

Zach1213

I would say a schedule change two days out is pretty unlikely.

OP, just make sure you keep track of the TICKET NUMBER (not the record locater) if you cancel - that's what they need to look you up when it comes time to re-book.

inpd

Great. Thanks you guys are great.

I'm going to wait to the final minute. If my flight is at 6am, there should be no problem canceling it at 5:30am right? There is no minimum time before cancellation.


Thanks again.

GNRMatt

If you're calling in to cancel, be aware that there could possibly be a long hold time. I'd give yourself more time than that.

neilk

FYI, if you happen to lose the ticket number, it should appear on your credit card statement or you can find it on the e-mail confirmation.

reeg2

No need - can cancel at aa.com with one-click.

CGRA

IIRC AA by phone told me that it must be from the same origin city but can be for a different destination city. (And for the same pax)
Does that seems right ?