A Flex award is basically the same as a Lowest award with an option to cancel. AC is mispricing this option. With other types of financial options, the price of the option the option holder paid for is usually nonrefundable, whether or not s/he chooses to exercise the option. IMO, AC charges too much (I believe for a TPAC J award, it charges around 15k or so) for the option, but strangely made the charge for the option itself refundable. They probably should have charged half of that amount (or slightly less) but made the charge nonrefundable.