Originally Posted by
js1993
There have been a lot of reports of this — supposedly because the same fare class from the flight credit needs to be booked — but it's really shady that you weren't informed before the charge, which has also happened to others.
If I were you, I'd book the $577 ticket from scratch and then demand a full refund of the $949 at
https://prefunds.aa.com or even via DOT complaint, if necessary. After that — definitely separately from the refund request — you could submit proof of the $470 fare you had on hold and ask for a credit or refund of the difference between $577 and $470.
A few people have had success requesting flight credits be converted to trip credits or paper vouchers, which, if granted, should avoid this problem in the future.
Thanks. Your post is extremely helpful and I will do what you say.
If AA:
1. takes a fare on hold and then
2. increases the fare to whatever the fare would be if the same fare class as the original ticket was being booked and
3. charges the customer the higher fare, while even though AA may be doing that in practice, that also seems to be unsupported by flight credit rules:
https://www.aa.com/i18n/customer-ser...vel-credit.jsp
1-3 just seem to be a way to rip people off. Even if AA’s rules allowed 1-3.
It seems as though AA’s practices don’t follow its own published rules.