Originally Posted by
AA100k
If AA cancels your flights, you can request a cash refund on your credit card, not a credit with them to be used by mid-July. If you cancel, then yes, you have to rebook and travel by mid-July. AA canceled my flight to CDG on 5 May and I was given a refund to my credit card.
I was directed by AA twitter to cancel and use the AA refunds site to submit a refund (which didn't work for some reason), so I called the AA desk and they processed a refund for me after being told by the EXP desk yesterday that it was a nogo. So it is possible to cancel yourself and get a refund, but requires a HUCA and I'm not sure how much talking to the EXP desk helped instead of a non-status AA CSR.