Had a JAL award flight booked via AA from April 2020. Pushed the flight back twice due to COVID. Called in a few days ago to push it back again and the operator was experiencing issues with the system, so I asked if they could cancel the flight and refund me the miles and I would rebook myself. They said that this was possible and processed the cancellation for me.

72 hours later, the miles hadn’t reposted so I reached out to AA via Twitter to which they said: “We've dug deeper into this. In sending the ticket off for refund, the system would've originally tried to push it through, so all seemed well. We've realized now though, that your original mileage award ticket has expired, since being issued on April 06, 2020. As such, a reinstatement can't be completed and those miles can't be retrieved.”

Needless to say, I am furious. How can I escalate this matter?