Originally Posted by
rumboj
AA’s stance is that it does play a role. The contractual obligation of acquiring the ticket is not complete until the customer has made payment within the 24 hour period. He didn’t do that...and seemingly not because of some innocent error. As a result, the OP should not have received his ticket at that initial rate. It was only available to him had he fulfilled his obligation of paying within the 24 hour period. Is AA willing to make exceptions? Sure...when there is a legit error in the payment process. This doesn’t appear to be a legit error because it has happened so often.
What you say is not correct. That stuff is not written anywhere. This situation certainly creates the potential for someone to abuse the system, because he can cancel the reservation anytime when it is still unticketed, essentially getting a free hold. However, if he never did that, there is no lost revenue for AA to claim. But they are certainly exposed to that potential.