Originally Posted by
JJeffrey
There is no penalty and nothing "bad" will happen or anything like that. Don't worry.
If you decide not to take the return portion, then just pull up your itinerary at aa.com and cancel it. Then, at a later date if you want to try to use the remaining value on the ticket for another US>Europe segment, you can call AA and see what the changes would cost. Otherwise, the ticket will just go away after a year.
*An alternative strategy is to wait until the day of departure to cancel the return portion. Check the flight status to see if there happens to be any major irrops or other delays. If yes, then put in a refund request, and you will receive ~50% of the fare back to your card.
I would also suggest you write down the original ticket number and take a screenshot of the cancellation (or keep the email confirmation, if you get one). The remaining value of the ticket will not show up in trip/travel credit wallet.
If it is a Basic Economy ticket, there will no remaining value.
Regarding any remaining value, I have only been able to use them on a future flight on the same original cancelled routing, not any new ticket. I’ve questioned this to several customer service agents, as last year I was in a position where I needed to cancel a few return flights. It was even suggested that for future travel, if the RT price is the same as 2 one ways, then purchase the one ways. In OP case, this doesn’t apply due to large cost differential.