omaralt

so i booked a flight on AA.com a few months ago. however a few hours after booking the flight i decided to cancel as i found a more direct routing. so i logged in online and cancelled the flight. no problem as it was only about 4 hours after booking it. it cancelled the flight with no issues. now, about 2 months later, i'm reviewing my credit card statements and realized that i never received a refund for that flight! i called AA, and they said you have to request a refund! are they serious? so cancelling a flight within the 24 hr cancellation window isn't enough, but then you have to go to prefunds.aa.com and request a refund. so i did that about 8 days ago, and it still shows up as "pending review". now first off, how can this possibly be legal? shouldnt they automatically refund it once you cancel the ticket? and then how long does it usually take to get the refund? thanks