Again, I appreciate all the thoughtful comments and different perspectives.

In reading them, I think what bothers me the most about this is the fact that I paid for a service, and the vendor I paid is determining when and how long I had to use that service. If you buy a computer from Dell, and cancel the order, you get your money refunded/don't get billed. If I put money down on a car, I can get it back if the sale isn't completed.

In this case, a transportation vendor is dictating how long I had to use the service I paid for, without regard for whatever my travel plans (or lack thereof) were - that is not their call.

I would have been perfectly happy for them to restore the credit. I would then have bought two more first class tickets to my intended international destination and paid the difference. Air travel is more expensive now and higher fares are expected. AA will operate those flights anyway, and would have made a little less on them that day, but then again I paid them once and they took profit from that transaction, whether I flew or not, and I was willing to 'call it even' in effect, and pay them again.

Yes, you can make the arguments that airline businesses are complicated, you were warned, non-refundable tickets are thing, etc. but at a basic level, why not simply restore the credit and move on?

In my view, it comes down to a willingness or unwillingness to work with your customers, and recognize that a company should not have this kind of ability to decide when you use their service. I did not want to travel by air until I chose to, they took my money for a service I did not receive the benefit of, and this company is not willing to let me leverage that purchased service for future use.