Originally Posted by
mangoMan
My wife has a SFO-LAX round trip (same day return) booked next week but her business plans changed and she doesn't need to go anymore. It's a cheapo <$100 ticket. She has no status on AS (yet). As I understand it, there's no way to extract any value from this ticket due to the change fee, right? Is it better to cancel, or just no-show?
Yes, you'd have to pay $125 cancellation fee in new money just to get less money back in the form of a credit certificate.
You can cancel and hold the ticket without paying the change fee now. I'd do that as a) it preserves the value of the ticket. If she achieves Gold or higher within the year expiration, she should be able to get the change fee waived then, b) seat is freed up for someone else and the airport agents aren't waiting for her to close check-in. I would wait until closer to the flight date though. If there's a cancellation or delay, you may be able to use that to get the ticket refunded.