Please correct me if I'm mistaken, but I thought AC only received the money when the flight was actually flown. I read (somewhere, quite possible on this forum) that the CC company keeps the money until then.

Anyhow I echo others' comments (and my own) that a credit would be 'OK' if it could be used like a gift card. Today I ate the $600 non-refundable portion of a May flight to get most ($3600) of my money back exactly for this reason. I have no idea if I'll be flying within the next year on a flight that costs at least $4200 and didn't want to take that risk