Hi, apologies if this was answered somewhere else and I couldn't find it. I had a flight credit that got extended to March 31 2022. In June 2021 I booked a flight to take place in late March 2022, using that flight credit. Today I learn that American has totally scrambled that reservation to create an unworkable schedule (literally with a connecting flight taking off before prior flight lands, multiple connections all over the country, and arriving a day late). There are no good alternatives either. I am going to have to rebook anew on another airline to be able to do the trip.

My question is whether I will be able to get a refund from American with an expiration date later than March 31 2022? I have been reading about conversions to trip credit with a one year expiration from date of issue, but I can't figure out if that will happen in my situation. I am concerned any credit I get will inherit the earlier expiration date (March 31 2022) and there is no way I can use it by then. Does it matter that I had booked to use it by that date and then they decided to not fly what I booked, or anything halfway close to it, or even anything humanly possible? I have been on hold for a long time trying to find out the answer to this, and am afraid if I just cancel online it will be understood as a voluntary cancellation on my part, when they have actually made my trip impossible on their airline, due to their actions. Thanks for any help!

UPDATE: After an hour on hold, I spoke to an agent who cancelled the flights for me and told me I'd have to request a refund online. Could not tell me what I would get in terms of credits or extensions ("I'm not refunds") and could not connect me to anyone who could tell me, but kept saying not to worry, it would all be fine, and also "what choice do you have? you can't do the flights!" -- which was true, since the flights were literally unflyable by anyone incapable of time travel. So I did the refund request online and indicated it was due to a schedule change, but still have no idea what, if anything, I will get.