Yeah, it's a crapshoot -- recently I had a refund issue (AA changed my itinerary and it became unworkable) and it took... oh... FOUR separate phone calls to resolve it. I've learned that if I think that I'm getting an incomplete/fishy answer, I politely end the call and ring them back. It went from call# 1) I pay $100 canx penalty even if AA changed my flights and I can't fly the new itinerary, 2) I pay no penalty since it's AA's fault and receive a full refund, 3) refund failed, write to Tulsa to get it 4) refund was processed smoothly and should show up w/in 48 hrs.

At least I got my $$ back and could book a trip I could actually take.