Enigma368 - I asked AA about this a couple of weeks ago when I was using flight credit to book a flight. Two of three AA reps said that I would receive flight credit if I needed to cancel the flights; however, the credit must be used by the same expiration date (e.g. 12/31/21). The third said that I would receive flight credit that must be used within 12 months.

Unfortunately, I did not get a consistent answer and there is no info about this anywhere on AA.com. I also searched a number of message boards but could not find an answer. I would recommend that you call AA and talk to more than one rep.