mh4ll

I recently had an AAA-PHL-BBB same day round trip. The first leg was significantly delayed and by the time I got to PHL, there was no way to continue on and still make it back the same day. I opted to be rerouted back to my original destination. The agent noted my record as trip in vain and told me to call and request a refund when I got home.

Now, I was counting on the PQMs from this trip. I am not foolish enough to think I'll get credit for the unflown segments, but will I receive the miles for the actual segments I flew? I am sure they will post as normal -- the question is whether they will be clawed back when I request the full trip in vain refund. Any recent experience on this?

I found the following in another thread, but it's super old. I'm hoping it is still the case:

branston

The last time I had a trip in vain was back in 2006 and I did receive credit for the segments flown. The one difference is that I flew my original itinerary the next day so didn't ask for a refund. I ended up flying:
day 1: AAA-PHL-AAA
day 2: AAA-PHL-BBB
day 3: BBB-PHL-AAA
and received miles for each flown segment.

rriopel432

Sorry, just realized this was the US forum, not the AA forum. My experience won't necessarily apply.

mh4ll

What was your AA experience? True that it won't necessarily apply, but any information that might be vaguely relevant could help me if I get into a disagreement with an agent over this situation...

rriopel432

AA gave me credit for the actual segments flown and gave me credit for the fare paid. I actually didn't even ask for the refund, I had only submitted a complaint about them dragging their heals cancelling a flight until it was too late to do anything other than sleep in the airport.

ibrandsguest

I had a trip in vain a year or so ago and received credit for the flights that I took. I was rerouted to get home (to an airport that wasn't my origin) and was told that I wouldn't get credit for that flight since it was "free", but I did get credit for it since my Dividend Miles number was added to the boarding pass before boarding.

mh4ll

The two segments I flew posted, and I requested a refund. Now to hope that the miles don't get clawed back...

mh4ll

Just wanted to update this thread. I called a couple days after the segments posted and requested a refund on the ticket. The phone rep saw the notes about trip in vain and quickly requested the refund, indicating I would get the full ticket price back. A few days later the credit posted to my card, and was for only about 45% of the full ticket price.

I did not receive any email or other communication about how the refund was calculated, but it seems pretty clear they refunded the unflown segments only. This does not reflect my understanding of what should have happened, but given that the posted segments are very important at this point in the year, I'm going to let it go. I suspect I could push for a full refund, and would if the miles were unimportant, but I fear a manual review of my refund would make it obvious I was on a same day turn mileage run and cause them to claw back the EQMs along with the full refund. Not much I could say if they did.

Just wanted to pass along. If anyone has experiences receiving a full refund for trip in vain, I'd be very interested to hear.

Circuits

No full refund for me, either, though I got full mileage credit for the entire itinerary, and roughly a 45% refund on the ticket price.

Weather irrops on my return flights had them either rescheduling me to the next day, or spending the night in DFW or DEN for a new connection the next day, so I cancelled the return trip and bought a direct flight on another carrier (DL).

ibrandsguest

I got a full refund for my trip in vain (where I missed an important family event).

From a typical customer's perspective, of course one should get a full refund, since one flies to get somewhere, not for the sake of just flying.