AA offers a free 24-hold on most itineraries so they do not offer a refund option after ticketing.

The FAQ is the place to go; you would then encounter the post that has information and links regarding your question.

As I read it, you can cancel and get a refund within 24 hours of purchase as long as the flight is more than one week away.

If you put your ticket on hold and then purchased, I do not believe you are entitled to a refund.

http://www.dot.gov/affairs/2012/dot0812.html

"Also beginning this week, passengers will be able to hold a reservation without payment, OR cancel a booking without penalty, for 24 hours after the reservation is made, if they make the reservation one week or more prior to a flight’s departure date." (emphasis added)

You did not read it correctly. If the airline gives you the ability to do a 24 hour hold, whether you actually use that or not, they do not have to give refunds after purchase.

Cheers.

I wondered about that. Thanks for the clarification.

There is so much confusion here, so hopefully this will clarify.

The DOT gives airlines and booking agents two options to comply with the new regulations. Airlines are free to choose either of them.
(1) 24 hour cancellation and refund payment -OR- (2) 24 hour hold without payment
For AA only flights, AA.com has chosen (2).

If your AA.com reservation is able to be placed on hold and you ticket it, you are NOT entitled to a refund or change once it has ticketed.

If your AA.com reservation is not able to be placed on hold (itineraries that include non-AA flights or ones with promo codes) you must ticket it immediately to keep the fare. If you made your reservation greater than 7 days in advance, you may cancel the ticket for a refund within 24 hours.

Note the following:
1) Not all AAgents might be aware of this policy. If you encounter one that is not, ask for a supervisor. AA recently sent out a memo to its phone agents regarding this so these instances have reduced.
2) If you used a one time use promo code and you cancel the flight within 24 hours, you lose the value of the promo code.

Of course, as brp stated above, a sympathetic AAgent can let anything happen.

Remember this fun exchange? :p

Yeah, but from what I can tell, they are getting better at it. :)

The answer is you can call and even though the ticket has been issued, ask the agent or your TA to *void* the ticket. I am unsure the time threshold, but I have had no problem asking for this even if I bought the ticket in the AM, and by COB I was able to push off the meeting. I have to do this a handfull of times a year and always have no issue.

So if making changes (not just a cancelation) on an award ticket booked from an Executive Platinum account even if the actual passenger is a general member, the EP fee waiver applies? Or does the person have to pay according to their own non-status level?

I believe the fee waiver applies in this case. Even if the passenger is a GM, so long as the origin and destination don't change and the date of travel is more than 21 days out, there are no change fees.

I have had to pay fees for canceled awards for me using miles from an EXP.

If you mean that the EXP used their miles to book you a ticket and then cancelled, this should not have happened. If you mean something else, then I don't know what you're saying.

Cheers.

OP said the miles were from his partner's account, a non-EXP.
The waiver applies if the account the miles are from belongs to an EXP.
The status of the passenger doesn't matter.

How long ago? I think this changed last year.
If the miles were from an EXP's account, there is currently no charge for this.