Please assist with navigating AA credits on refunded flight
Jan 24, 2015, 11:59 pm
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Mar 2011
Posts: 62
Please assist with navigating AA credits on refunded flight
Hello,
I'm wondering if any AA experts on this forum can assist with something. In March of 2014, I booked a December 26th flight to St. Thomas. As fate would have it, I soon found out that my wife was pregnant and we were due to fly on her due date. Obviously, I cancelled the trip.
When I got around to calling, AA placed a refund of about $750 per ticket (after their $200 fee) directly on my e-ticket. There was no voucher issued, they said to just place an itinerary on hold and then call to transfer the e-ticket to the new itinerary. To my surprise, the funds were only good for flights departing one year from the date that I booked, not from the date of travel.
Since we have a newborn baby, we are not interested in going anywhere in the next couple months. The earliest would be April or May. So I was wondering if there is any way to extend this credit. An AA agent offered the idea of booking a cheap refundable flight before my expiry date, and then cancelling it. He thought this would extend it, but was not confident at all. Can anyone comment on this, or have any other ideas?
I did not explore the idea of asking for a refund based on a birth of a child, is this anything that ever happens? I don't really want to spend hours going back and forth with AA on this one (my hold times were unreal every time I called in about this trip) so I would rather just use the credit up and pay the fee unless the process for triggering one of these refunds is really simple.
Thanks in advance for any assistance!
I'm wondering if any AA experts on this forum can assist with something. In March of 2014, I booked a December 26th flight to St. Thomas. As fate would have it, I soon found out that my wife was pregnant and we were due to fly on her due date. Obviously, I cancelled the trip.
When I got around to calling, AA placed a refund of about $750 per ticket (after their $200 fee) directly on my e-ticket. There was no voucher issued, they said to just place an itinerary on hold and then call to transfer the e-ticket to the new itinerary. To my surprise, the funds were only good for flights departing one year from the date that I booked, not from the date of travel.
Since we have a newborn baby, we are not interested in going anywhere in the next couple months. The earliest would be April or May. So I was wondering if there is any way to extend this credit. An AA agent offered the idea of booking a cheap refundable flight before my expiry date, and then cancelling it. He thought this would extend it, but was not confident at all. Can anyone comment on this, or have any other ideas?
I did not explore the idea of asking for a refund based on a birth of a child, is this anything that ever happens? I don't really want to spend hours going back and forth with AA on this one (my hold times were unreal every time I called in about this trip) so I would rather just use the credit up and pay the fee unless the process for triggering one of these refunds is really simple.
Thanks in advance for any assistance!
Jan 25, 2015, 7:19 am
#2
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: SJC/VCE
Programs: AA PLT (2.9+ MM), HH GLD, Hyatt Diamond, SPG PLT
Posts: 10,161
When I got around to calling, AA placed a refund of about $750 per ticket (after their $200 fee) directly on my e-ticket. There was no voucher issued, they said to just place an itinerary on hold and then call to transfer the e-ticket to the new itinerary. To my surprise, the funds were only good for flights departing one year from the date that I booked, not from the date of travel.
Since we have a newborn baby, we are not interested in going anywhere in the next couple months. The earliest would be April or May. So I was wondering if there is any way to extend this credit. An AA agent offered the idea of booking a cheap refundable flight before my expiry date, and then cancelling it. He thought this would extend it, but was not confident at all. Can anyone comment on this, or have any other ideas?
Since we have a newborn baby, we are not interested in going anywhere in the next couple months. The earliest would be April or May. So I was wondering if there is any way to extend this credit. An AA agent offered the idea of booking a cheap refundable flight before my expiry date, and then cancelling it. He thought this would extend it, but was not confident at all. Can anyone comment on this, or have any other ideas?
This is not going to happen.
Last edited by JDiver; Jan 25, 2015 at 9:15 am Reason: Replace thread link
Jan 25, 2015, 7:54 pm
#4
Original Poster
Join Date: Mar 2011
Posts: 62
Thanks very much for the replies!
I read that thread, and it helped, but wow is it ever confusing. The information definitely conflicts and everyone seems to disagree with each other. Why oh why doesn't AA just use travelbank...
What I gathered is:
1) If you book before the expiry (one year after the original booking) they may or may not allow you to ticket a flight after the expiry. Official policy says they won't do this. It appears travel must commence before the original date of booking, so people who got around this were lucky.
2) there may be a way to extend the credit by booking a refundable or non-refundable ticket
So assuming I can't just ticket the flight after the expiry date, it looks like my options are:
1) Book the cheapest refundable flight I can find, immediately cancel it, and then hope that the new ticket number or a voucher will allow for a re-ticket for another year. I assume this would cause 2 tickets/vouchers to be issued (one for the remaining residual funds, and one for the cancelled refundable flight). Hopefully, both of these would extend the expiry. I'm thinking it may be best to try to find a refundable flight that is exactly the same amount as the value of my cancelled ticket to avoid having two credits.
2) Book the cheapest domestic throwaway non-refundable ticket that commences before the expiry date, and be issued a voucher for the difference. This voucher may work past the original expiry date. There was talk that you may have to attend in person at the airport to do this, but this is really difficult for me (nearest AA-served airport is 2.5 hours away). There was also talk that if you no-show or cancel the new flight, you won't get issued a voucher.
It appears there is some risk that one or both of these options may not work at all and the original expiry will apply.
Can anyone chime in on any experiences or thoughts with either option?
Thanks again for all the assistance.
I read that thread, and it helped, but wow is it ever confusing. The information definitely conflicts and everyone seems to disagree with each other. Why oh why doesn't AA just use travelbank...
What I gathered is:
1) If you book before the expiry (one year after the original booking) they may or may not allow you to ticket a flight after the expiry. Official policy says they won't do this. It appears travel must commence before the original date of booking, so people who got around this were lucky.
2) there may be a way to extend the credit by booking a refundable or non-refundable ticket
So assuming I can't just ticket the flight after the expiry date, it looks like my options are:
1) Book the cheapest refundable flight I can find, immediately cancel it, and then hope that the new ticket number or a voucher will allow for a re-ticket for another year. I assume this would cause 2 tickets/vouchers to be issued (one for the remaining residual funds, and one for the cancelled refundable flight). Hopefully, both of these would extend the expiry. I'm thinking it may be best to try to find a refundable flight that is exactly the same amount as the value of my cancelled ticket to avoid having two credits.
2) Book the cheapest domestic throwaway non-refundable ticket that commences before the expiry date, and be issued a voucher for the difference. This voucher may work past the original expiry date. There was talk that you may have to attend in person at the airport to do this, but this is really difficult for me (nearest AA-served airport is 2.5 hours away). There was also talk that if you no-show or cancel the new flight, you won't get issued a voucher.
It appears there is some risk that one or both of these options may not work at all and the original expiry will apply.
Can anyone chime in on any experiences or thoughts with either option?
Thanks again for all the assistance.
Last edited by patiolanterns; Jan 25, 2015 at 7:55 pm Reason: clarification
Jan 25, 2015, 8:18 pm
#5
Suspended
Join Date: Aug 2010
Location: DCA
Programs: UA US CO AA DL FL
Posts: 50,262
A better and sure thing would be to find a trip that you do want to take and call AA and ask if you can extend the credit to apply to that trip. The new ticket will carry the credits' restrictions so if you make any change, you will lose the value of the credit.
But, it is easier to get some help when you have a specific plan.
But, it is easier to get some help when you have a specific plan.
Jan 25, 2015, 9:27 pm
#6
Original Poster
Join Date: Mar 2011
Posts: 62
A better and sure thing would be to find a trip that you do want to take and call AA and ask if you can extend the credit to apply to that trip. The new ticket will carry the credits' restrictions so if you make any change, you will lose the value of the credit.
But, it is easier to get some help when you have a specific plan.
But, it is easier to get some help when you have a specific plan.
The plan is to fly somewhere in May, and try to use up a piece of this expensive domestic AA ticket. I cancelled several months in advance, and as this was a sold-out flight 6 months before takeoff, they happily re-sold my ticket. So I don't think I am doing anything wrong by trying to get this thing used up one way or the other, especially when the AA agent encouraged trying everything to do so. With that goal in mind, I'm soliciting opinions on how to get the ball rolling on this.
I don't have a specific flight I want to travel on at the moment, but I've narrowed it down to a few options and I'll know soon. This information is not relevant (yet) if I have to use one of the above options and book a dummy reservation first. In this case, I have to get the credit extended before I can book my real flight.
But I'll call in this week with a hypothetical flight past the expiry and see what they say about just straight booking it. Because that would be ideal.