Aubie: I agree that if I buy a physical item and do not use it I should not get the tax back, but in this case I bought a service that was never provided. When I found I could not go, I cancelled the reservation thus freeing up the seat for American to resell. Some of the taxes (PFC's) and airport user taxes were for airports I never used. My original question is what is American going to do with these taxes? If they forwaded them on to the appropiate government and airport tax authorities, fine I can buy that. If American puts it torwards their bottom line, I think it is wrong.

American has stated several times that I can't use the value of the ticket for anything except for a future trip(within one year of issue) on the same routing!! In other words I can't pay the change fee ($150) and apply the difference torwards a brand new ticket.

Going back to the tax issue, If someone buys a fully refundable ticket and does not use it, they get back the cost of the ticket and the taxes. I purchased a non-refundable ticket and am aware of the risks of not using the ticket, but if the tax portion is refundable on a full fare ticket, I think they should be refunadble on the nonrefunable tickets. There is a clear distinction between taxes and base fare.