Originally Posted by
windowontheAside
I understood that was the case only for tickets issued in the US. I have fallen foul of this with a ticket issued by AA in the UK, where I discovered that inflexible and non-refundable has the typical meaning used by BA and other airlines.
In the States, it seems all the major airlines have a different interpretation of such things. Non-refundable means just that - you can't have your money back, but you can reuse it. Here that's not the case.
The rules for AA non refundable fares for travel orginating in USA generally do have a change rule that allows for credit (minus change fee) to be stored rather than requiring that a rebooking be made immediately - this seems to be pretty normal for airlines in USA
For travel originating elsewhere, it seems to follow normal rules of refundability and doesn't tend to have such clauses in relation to changes
If this was an AA fare that was sold by AA, then does look like its CoC may well cover for a refund anyway - otherwise travel insurance should