Originally Posted by JDiver
You have the correct information.
chaneytexas is right on the button with his/her advice. Your PNR is recycled to another itinerary (think about it - only six letters, only 16 in the alphabet,) but your ticket number will never recycle (AA tickets begin with 001-.)
For an award ticket, you can re-book the itinerary later, or re-deposit (for a fee.)
If your ticket is paid NR, you can see the entire conditions for refundability at
www.refunds.aa.com (just don't complete the process for a refund) and you have one year to use the value (less service fees) toward another ticket. Your new ticket may be required to have similar limitations to the original (e.g. refundability) as I recall - they don't want us folding a NR into a refundable and beating the system.
If the value of the AA ticket is large enough you can shop around for the cheapest o/w fare in the AA system. For example: LAS LAX. A route where AA competes with a low cost carrier is the best place to look. Use the non-refundable ticket to buy that fare. The cost will the fare plus the change fee. The agent will give you back the difference as a voucher. Now the residual value is in voucher form and it can be used to purchase any kind of ticket, including making the subsequent ticket or tickets in the name of someone other than the original purchaser.