Originally Posted by
ijgordon
This does NOT look refundable to me. It does not have "cancellations permitted", only "changes permitted" and it notes that if the reservation is not canceled prior to the departure of the flight, the ticket loses value. Most refundable fares do not have this requirement. But OTOH, it also does not say non-refundable. So color me
Also, while I would certainly defer to xiiloper on the intricacies of fare rules, and without checking how AA.com categorizes things, I would interpret "flexible" to mean you can change without a fee (which is basically everything but basic economy), and "fully flexible" to mean it's refundable. Of course if AA.com says something different, then go by that (and take screen caps!)
I copied the fare rules from this specific AA fare from EF, and as shown above, it says "CHANGES/CANCELLATIONS PERMITTED" under Cancellations sub-section of Penalties section. It is also in the text OP posted, but it's hard to spot as AA just mashes all the fare rule text together rather than presenting it in a reasonably formatted layout. Fully flexible fares will have exact same text in Cancellations section, and as in fare rules above, this is the only indication you will get that a fare is refundable. Some refundable fares can have fees for refunds, but they are pretty much only on international routes and any fees will be called out in the Penalties section.
In pre-Covid times, refundable fares used to be limited to only certain high fare classes that generally had no advance purchase requirements. Since Covid hit, they have introduced a whole range of refundable fares with a fairly modest upcharge and which have the same advance purchase terms and other restrictions of the underlying non-refundable variants. You can see from Advance Reservation restrictions section above that this particular fare has a 7 day advance purchase requirement. Fully flexible fares are more like traditional refundable fares with no advance purchase requirement. But both flexible and fully flexible are ultimately refundable as AA notes when you select their feature lists. The reason for purchasing a fully flexible fare might be if you are purchasing it for someone else and their flight plans are likely to change (say a busy executive / VIP type) and you want to provide them the ability to change flights without getting hit with fare difference charges in most cases. Aside from the routes that have Flexible fares with fees for refunds, I'd consider the Fully Flexible fares to be mostly a marketing gimmick.