Originally Posted by
jdrtravel
When was this? I think that when the Amex DL cards were first issues they were very strict about this. However, for at least the last 5-6 years I have also had zero problem doing this. No arguments. Also, even after the 24 hour window I have been able to make changes to the reservation, but had to pay the change fee. Agents will need to transfer you to the promotions desk, as they handle these (but most agents seem to know this).
I can give you the exact date: August 3 of last year I made the res for October travel. 3 front line agents and 1 supervisor nixed it. All I was trying to do was change the date. I admitted upfront that I had made a mistake in the date in booking for daughter and family. I was not flying on the itinerary. I was putting daughter and child on one PRN using the cert and SIL on a separate one. My first call was within about 7 or 8 hours which went nowhere so I tried again the next morning, still within the 24. Got cut off and tried again. When I finally got a reasonable person on the phone she put me on hold several times trying to fix it for me. Finally got a supervisor who said the rules firmly stated that any cancellation voided the cert. I knew I was right but was just tired of fighting it so I changed the 2 paid tickets and used miles for the other. I just needed those exact flights on the exact dates for a family function and the flights were filling up.
I was going to continue the battle at a later date to get the cert reinstated but it would have expired before I had a chance to use it. In hindsight I probably should have just cancelled both bookings online instead of calling. That might have redeposited the cert as you and others have said.