The suggestion offed by
RK23 makes perfect sense to me. If, on the day of *purchase* the cheapest (presumably restricted) business class (I am not using fare basis to avoid confusion) was $600 and restricted coach could be purchased for $200, the refund ought to be $400. If, on the other hand, the passenger (not OP in this case) bought a full J fare ticket, then the refund should be the difference between that ticket price and the cheapest *unrestricted* coach ticket for sale on the day of purchase. It is just apples-to-apples: remove all the other variables like refundability and get to two tickets for sale on the same date where the only difference is the cabin of travel.
It is completely absurd for the airline to say: "You paid $600 for a super discounted business class ticket 3 months ago, but the walk up coach fare on the day of travel is $700, so you get no refund."
seems fine to me. you book a J cabin ticket, you miss a flight due to no fault of AA, and your remedy is the very next available J1 seat to your destination or reroute connection taking the last J1 seat or an alternative nearby destination taking the last J1 seat. if you select another option, next Y1 seat, then that’s a voluntary choice and no refund likely due unless you’re on an expenseive J fare (unlikely for FTers).
$200 vs. $600 so $400 refund is bad logic.
half the one-way was flown, so haircut it $100 vs. $300 so $200 diff.
but you still got lounge access, premium checkin, first class bag allowance.
so, haircut the $200 even more.
even still, AA should refund jack. no AA fault here and passenger voluntarily chose next Y1 not next J1.
i’d be on your side if AA tried to pull some crap to no rebook a Z ticket onto a J1Z0 flight, but that’s not the case here and AA has never once pulled that crap with me.
if the problem was AA fault, i’d like to see AA remedy by finding a volunteer downgrade or involuntary downgrade an upgraded passenger. AA won’t do this and I think AA is wrong.
AA J cabin fares are too cheap. often cant even buy a J ticket days in advance. AA should have goal for all flights being J2 an hour before departure.