We had a similar situation in 2013 except our cancellation was not on a credit card but we had purchased separate cancellation insurance. We had to cancel on the day of our trip to South Africa from YYZ -- medical issue for DH. For our AE redemption of 300,000 (150,000 miles X 2) we talked to AE and moved our flights out 22 days and then cancelled so approx $400 (90 x 2 x 2 + taxes cost.). As reason for cancelling the trip was for a qualified reason we got back our cost of the trip plus the AE costs as well. Took the exact same trip with AE points in 2015!