Ok, I have had the unfortunate incident where my US passport got water damaged and needs replacement. Replacement must be done in person. In order to get an appointment (I'm going to the NYC passport office), I need to have a tix within four weeks (since I have visas that require transfer to new passport) or two weeks without visa requirement. A real real pain in the... obviously a measure by them to cut down # of superfluous appointments but really is stupid for replacement when I fly based on need and my family is in Australia!

Anyways, sorry for the rant, but I have to schedule an intl flight even though I don't necessarily have to go to that intl destination at that time.

So, I am thinking of booking a flight to intl destination with fully refundable fare, get the passport, and then cancel the flight.

With fully refundable fare, do I still get hit with penalties? What's the impact of getting fully refundable fare and a flight is code shared?

Note I highly prefer doing this on AA, hence my post here.