Originally Posted by
npretnar
Why would revenue management care if you booked $50,000 worth of non-refundable tickets and canceled last minute, only for you to receive $50,000 worth of Travel Credits that ostensibly you would have to use at a later date? Alternatively, suppose you booked $50,000 worth of fully refundable tickets and canceled all of them 3 hours before departure. You’d get your money back, sure, but what otherwise could they do? Tell you that you’re not allowed to book refundable tickets anymore? In neither case are you violating AA’s terms but using them as they are designed.
Because that inventory spoils if it can't be resold. Let's say you place a $50,000 catering order only to cancel the day of the event. You tell the caterer... what's the problem? Just give me a $50,000 credit to buy catering from you in the future. All that food can't be resold to someone else. The $50,000 credit pays for the food you'll order in the future, which the caterer would have to acquire, prepare, and serve at that future date at additional expense. The caterer still has to eat the cost of all the food you caused to go to waste now that no one else will pay them for.
If you make a habit of this, you may well not get your money back even with fully refundable tickets. AA revenue management has been known to pursue cases of egregious and repeated speculative bookings/excessive cancellations. Penalties have included being banned from flying AA entirely, including the loss of AAdvantage accounts and forfeiture of any status, miles, or other rewards earned. Sometimes AA will offer to settle the matter, for an agreed monetary value and an agreement reaffirming that you will not repeat such practices in the future, as an alternative to being banned.
American's CoC prohibits "Buying a ticket without intending to travel", "Holding reservations for reasons like securing upgrades, blocking seats or obtaining lower fares", as well as "Booking duplicate or impossible trips, for example multiple trips for the same passenger around the same time (trips a passenger physically could not complete)".
On a small scale, you're not going to be bothered, but if you take this to extremes where you are causing material financial loss to AA, AA will certainly argue that your pattern of booking so many flights combined with your extreme cancellation rate indicates that you did not ever truly have intent to travel as booked.