Originally Posted by
bruadair
Last summer I flew to Washington, while there I was hospitalized for 10 days for pneumonia and the swine flu. I was on a respirator and in quarantine for most of that stay. My family called AA two days before my ticketed return and AA said no exceptions to the change fee. My family asked for and got a supervisor who said the same thing. The supervisor did say that if I could show up at the airport for my ticketed flight I was more than welcome to fly. I'm sure all the other passengers would have liked that. A new ticket ended up being cheaper than changing my existing at the time.
My experience with ticket changes with AA has always been good but always included a change fee, no exception. Unless of course as the previous poster stated, the flight is cancelled or delayed.
I have a different experience.
I had a ticket SAN-VIE-PRG-SAN for early April 2010 (AA for the TATL flights). In March 2010 I had to go to the ER to take care of an appendicities that turned into septicemia and pancreatitis and had to stay at the hospital for 3 weeks. I called AA to cancel the trip and the agent said she could waive the cancellation fee if I sent proper medical records. But then I said that I wanted to use the credit to buy a ticket for August. She issued to me the new ticket, waived the change fee and said that I did not have to send any medical records. I was EXP at the time.
So, I got the change/ cancellation fee waived for an international flight. It happens.