Originally Posted by
TheSinister
I had a family emergency two months ago and could not make my flight to HKG. I bought a non refundable ticket and told my story to AA. I was prepared to forfeit my entire airfare cost, but surprisingly they refunded me the entire thing with no change fee. I was very surprised considering I bought a non refundable ticket. So I was able to attend to my family emergency and was reimbursed 100%.
I had a similar experience last year. A very elderly family member had a medical emergency the day before scheduled return and ended up in the hospital for 2 weeks. After I provided AA the relevant info--ticket number, letter authorizing me to act on relative's behalf, and a signed physician letter on letterhead attesting that travel on the original date was medically impossible--they granted a credit for the full value of the return flight.