Mar 20, 2016, 9:00 pm
Last edit by: JDiver
Award Reinstatement / Miles Redeposit / Expired Miles Reinstatement (Awards secured by 30 June 2020)
NOTE: This thread is obsolescent, and doesn’t apply to awards secured after 30 June 2020. See this thread for changes in effect 1 July 2020.
AAdvantage award reinstatement / reissuance charges Link
Prior to ticketing, you may change your AAdvantage travel award reservations with no charge incurred for a number of stipulated changes. However, if your tickets are reissued after the original ticketing, a charge may apply for each ticket. This service charge is paid at the time your ticket is reissued and is subject to change without notice. Upgrade, companion and discount award travel is subject to restrictions of fare purchased.
AAdvantage miles will be reinstated for unused and unexpired awards upon payment of a processing fee. For each additional award reinstatement from the same account at the same time, an additional charge will be collected. These charges are payable by credit card. Gift cards may not be used.
Expired tickets will not be reinstated. If a portion of the miles used to claim an award ticket has expired, only those miles that have not expired will be reinstated. Partially used tickets will not be reinstated.
Prior to ticketing, you may change your AAdvantage travel award reservations with no charge incurred for a number of stipulated changes. However, if your tickets are reissued after the original ticketing, a charge may apply for each ticket. This service charge is paid at the time your ticket is reissued and is subject to change without notice. Upgrade, companion and discount award travel is subject to restrictions of fare purchased.
AAdvantage miles will be reinstated for unused and unexpired awards upon payment of a processing fee. For each additional award reinstatement from the same account at the same time, an additional charge will be collected. These charges are payable by credit card. Gift cards may not be used.
Expired tickets will not be reinstated. If a portion of the miles used to claim an award ticket has expired, only those miles that have not expired will be reinstated. Partially used tickets will not be reinstated.
Reinstating flight awards Link
Contact American Airlines Reservations for assistance with canceling your flight award reservation and requesting mileage reinstatement.
You can request to have your AAdvantage mileage reinstated for a wholly unused AAdvantage award ticket and if the ticket has not expired
Contact American Airlines Reservations for assistance with canceling your flight award reservation and requesting mileage reinstatement.
You can request to have your AAdvantage mileage reinstated for a wholly unused AAdvantage award ticket and if the ticket has not expired
- The reinstatement charge is $150 per account for the first award ticket.
- Additional award tickets reinstated to the same account at the same time will have a $25 charge per ticket
- This fee will be waived for Executive Platinum (and Concierge Key) members using miles from their account
Expired miles may also be reinstated within an 18 month period of time, but these will generally require a reinstatement fee or a reingagement requirement that will require certain levels of AA travel. There’s no other way known to reactivate an account with miles reinstated, though it’s theoretically possible to petition AAdvantage customer service for mercy in force majeure issues (e.g. military deployment or other condition beyond one’s control). Contact AA for your specific situation.
AA award miles reinstatement / redeposit fees, issues, questions thru 30 Jun 2020
Mar 15, 2019, 6:13 am
#406
Suspended
Join Date: Feb 2019
Location: Buffalo, but live from suitcase
Programs: Delta, AA, Marriott
Posts: 240
They have never waived the fee for me and I am exp unless I do the same flight different dates
Apr 1, 2019, 9:49 pm
#407
Join Date: May 2012
Posts: 89
If two or more awards are being redeposited to the same account at the same time, the fees are $150 for the first award, $25 for every award thereafter. Note the awards do not have to share the same PNR
Apr 2, 2019, 10:45 am
#408
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Dec 2003
Location: Not here; there!
Programs: AA Lifetime Gold
Posts: 29,626
Yes, as long as all the miles came from a single account, and the redeposit request for both awards is made at the same time.
Apr 7, 2019, 12:10 am
#409
Join Date: May 2012
Posts: 89
Redepositing awards incurs a fee of $150
Apr 9, 2019, 10:59 pm
#410
Join Date: May 2012
Posts: 89
"Upgrading" class of service by using miles requires redepositing the original award and issuing a new one for the higher class if service. AA will waive the deposit fee on the redeposited award, and will not charge for this.
Will the entire ticket be redeposited even if only upgrading one-way of the round trip?
I need to rebook a flight outside the 12 month window and trying to avoid the $150 redeposit fee.
May 30, 2019, 12:16 pm
#411
Join Date: Jul 2002
Location: Virginia, USA
Posts: 4,511
Yet again I have had a telephone reservation agent insist that same-time reinstatement of multiple cancelled awards is $150 per award despite American's own website saying it is $150 for the first award and $25 for others reinstated at the same time. She even claimed her Help Desk confirmed this. Unfortunately she took this position after I had paid $150 to reinstate the first award and there was no way I was going to needlessly pay $150 for each of the remaining ones. So I have had to fire off yet anther email to Aadvantage CS asking them to straighten this all out. Which they will do but at a huge cost in my time and theirs. Why don't the agents and their supervisors know the rules of their own company?
May 30, 2019, 12:40 pm
#412
Join Date: Dec 2004
Posts: 5,633
Yet again I have had a telephone reservation agent insist that same-time reinstatement of multiple cancelled awards is $150 per award despite American's own website saying it is $150 for the first award and $25 for others reinstated at the same time. She even claimed her Help Desk confirmed this. Unfortunately she took this position after I had paid $150 to reinstate the first award...
May 30, 2019, 1:51 pm
#413
Join Date: Jul 2002
Location: Virginia, USA
Posts: 4,511
It was one phone call but she refused to redeposit the miles from the first award until I paid the $150. And then she said the next one would be $150 also. I asked her to undo the first transaction but she claimed she couldn't. What bothers me most is that if it has happened to me several times, as it has, then it must be happening to others on a fairly large scale. And it is likely hitting those who can ill afford these fees pretty hard, such as families with children. If both an agent and her supervisor erroneously say the fees must be paid then most will do so, even if it is hundreds of dollars, in order to preserve miles it may have taken them years to accumulate. It's a really callous and disgraceful situation.
Last edited by JetAway; May 30, 2019 at 1:57 pm
May 30, 2019, 2:39 pm
#415
Join Date: Jul 2002
Location: Virginia, USA
Posts: 4,511
Sorry to disagree but I've redeposited awards multiple times and they have always taken the credit card after I give them the info for the first award. But they then take the info for the subsequent awards. Therefor I had no reason to think this agent was doing anything wrong. I'm not out any money in the sense that the awards are still valid and I can use them at a different date. But given that I can simply redeposit awards with UA at a couple of computer clicks, the half hour I spent on this exercise was really annoying.
Jun 12, 2019, 7:13 pm
#416
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Aug 2003
Location: MSY (finally); previously NYC, BOS, AUH
Programs: AA EXP, 6MM; BA GLD
Posts: 17,250
Over the years I've found that when I cancel and redeposit an award ticket, 60% of the time the miles go back immediately, while the other 40% of the times they don't.
If I don't see them redeposited in 2-3 days I give AA a call back. Typically the agent will look at the record and then come back with something like "there, now it's set up for redeposit, you should see the miles momentarily and the taxes in a few weeks." I truly have no idea what the agents are doing (incorrectly) in those instances where the miles aren't redeposited immediately.
Bottom line, don't worry about whatever refunds is showing, just give AA a call back and ask them again to redeposit the miles on this PNR.
If I don't see them redeposited in 2-3 days I give AA a call back. Typically the agent will look at the record and then come back with something like "there, now it's set up for redeposit, you should see the miles momentarily and the taxes in a few weeks." I truly have no idea what the agents are doing (incorrectly) in those instances where the miles aren't redeposited immediately.
Bottom line, don't worry about whatever refunds is showing, just give AA a call back and ask them again to redeposit the miles on this PNR.
Jun 12, 2019, 8:10 pm
#417
Join Date: Jul 2002
Location: Virginia, USA
Posts: 4,511
If they don't appear after 2-3 days, call. My experience has been that there is usually a problem somewhere-usually on AA's end. It sometimes seem that matters drop into someone's 'In Box' and simply sink to the bottom.
Jun 13, 2019, 3:51 pm
#418
Join Date: Sep 2017
Location: DCA/IAD & BUF
Posts: 1,407
I'm not sure this is the right thread to post ... moderators please move as appropriate.
This afternoon I looked at my AA e-summary. Something I haven't done thoroughly in .... well.... a long time. Maybe not ever since the merger, when I recall doing a sanity check the number was correct. The reason being, my travel post merger has been very simple. Pretty much pleasure travel to the Caribbean or occasional Buffalo for family. I had too much other stuff going and was no longer spending effort chasing the miles/points game on one airline. I did continue to use the AAdvantadge Mastercard as my primary travel card when making any AA flights for sure due to the bonus points, and for most other travel related purchases as well. There was enough periodic use on the card I never worried about my AA FF miles expiring. I wasn't using awards, and the miles balance went slowly up, about in line with the small miles distances and other occasional purchases I was putting on the card. So it's been a long time until today that I scrutinized in detail.
What I didn't realize until I looked in more detail today, that although it looks AA purchase $$ were credited OK when I used the Card, that the actual AA FF miles have not been credited at all. Except for the very last trip I made in April. That's why I noticed it. The April trip miles were showing and the March trip miles were not. OK, no problem, just some glitch I can get fixed on the March trip. But then I went back the two years I could with the online tool, there are no other AA miles credits at all.
I will start to reconcile all this tonight, to the extent I can pull dates and ticket numbers together from old emails. Thankfully I tend to never discard airline reservation emails in the trash so hopefully still have most of these in-between my two email accounts. Boarding passes and the like are hit or miss.
My question is, how long can I go back and get these miles credited? It wasn't very long with US - I think a year or two - but I couldn't find anything in my quick search on AA's website stating the expiration for flight miles being credited. Is it the same as the 18 months for miles reactivation? Thanks! and Ugh. :-( It's probably not that much but still now I am kicking myself for whatever miles I have lost.
This afternoon I looked at my AA e-summary. Something I haven't done thoroughly in .... well.... a long time. Maybe not ever since the merger, when I recall doing a sanity check the number was correct. The reason being, my travel post merger has been very simple. Pretty much pleasure travel to the Caribbean or occasional Buffalo for family. I had too much other stuff going and was no longer spending effort chasing the miles/points game on one airline. I did continue to use the AAdvantadge Mastercard as my primary travel card when making any AA flights for sure due to the bonus points, and for most other travel related purchases as well. There was enough periodic use on the card I never worried about my AA FF miles expiring. I wasn't using awards, and the miles balance went slowly up, about in line with the small miles distances and other occasional purchases I was putting on the card. So it's been a long time until today that I scrutinized in detail.
What I didn't realize until I looked in more detail today, that although it looks AA purchase $$ were credited OK when I used the Card, that the actual AA FF miles have not been credited at all. Except for the very last trip I made in April. That's why I noticed it. The April trip miles were showing and the March trip miles were not. OK, no problem, just some glitch I can get fixed on the March trip. But then I went back the two years I could with the online tool, there are no other AA miles credits at all.
I will start to reconcile all this tonight, to the extent I can pull dates and ticket numbers together from old emails. Thankfully I tend to never discard airline reservation emails in the trash so hopefully still have most of these in-between my two email accounts. Boarding passes and the like are hit or miss.
My question is, how long can I go back and get these miles credited? It wasn't very long with US - I think a year or two - but I couldn't find anything in my quick search on AA's website stating the expiration for flight miles being credited. Is it the same as the 18 months for miles reactivation? Thanks! and Ugh. :-( It's probably not that much but still now I am kicking myself for whatever miles I have lost.
Jun 13, 2019, 4:11 pm
#419
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Dec 2003
Location: Not here; there!
Programs: AA Lifetime Gold
Posts: 29,626
I'm not sure this is the right thread to post ... moderators please move as appropriate.
This afternoon I looked at my AA e-summary. Something I haven't done thoroughly in .... well.... a long time. Maybe not ever since the merger, when I recall doing a sanity check the number was correct. The reason being, my travel post merger has been very simple. Pretty much pleasure travel to the Caribbean or occasional Buffalo for family. I had too much other stuff going and was no longer spending effort chasing the miles/points game on one airline. I did continue to use the AAdvantadge Mastercard as my primary travel card when making any AA flights for sure due to the bonus points, and for most other travel related purchases as well. There was enough periodic use on the card I never worried about my AA FF miles expiring. I wasn't using awards, and the miles balance went slowly up, about in line with the small miles distances and other occasional purchases I was putting on the card. So it's been a long time until today that I scrutinized in detail.
What I didn't realize until I looked in more detail today, that although it looks AA purchase $$ were credited OK when I used the Card, that the actual AA FF miles have not been credited at all. Except for the very last trip I made in April. That's why I noticed it. The April trip miles were showing and the March trip miles were not. OK, no problem, just some glitch I can get fixed on the March trip. But then I went back the two years I could with the online tool, there are no other AA miles credits at all.
I will start to reconcile all this tonight, to the extent I can pull dates and ticket numbers together from old emails. Thankfully I tend to never discard airline reservation emails in the trash so hopefully still have most of these in-between my two email accounts. Boarding passes and the like are hit or miss.
My question is, how long can I go back and get these miles credited? It wasn't very long with US - I think a year or two - but I couldn't find anything in my quick search on AA's website stating the expiration for flight miles being credited. Is it the same as the 18 months for miles reactivation? Thanks! and Ugh. :-( It's probably not that much but still now I am kicking myself for whatever miles I have lost.
This afternoon I looked at my AA e-summary. Something I haven't done thoroughly in .... well.... a long time. Maybe not ever since the merger, when I recall doing a sanity check the number was correct. The reason being, my travel post merger has been very simple. Pretty much pleasure travel to the Caribbean or occasional Buffalo for family. I had too much other stuff going and was no longer spending effort chasing the miles/points game on one airline. I did continue to use the AAdvantadge Mastercard as my primary travel card when making any AA flights for sure due to the bonus points, and for most other travel related purchases as well. There was enough periodic use on the card I never worried about my AA FF miles expiring. I wasn't using awards, and the miles balance went slowly up, about in line with the small miles distances and other occasional purchases I was putting on the card. So it's been a long time until today that I scrutinized in detail.
What I didn't realize until I looked in more detail today, that although it looks AA purchase $$ were credited OK when I used the Card, that the actual AA FF miles have not been credited at all. Except for the very last trip I made in April. That's why I noticed it. The April trip miles were showing and the March trip miles were not. OK, no problem, just some glitch I can get fixed on the March trip. But then I went back the two years I could with the online tool, there are no other AA miles credits at all.
I will start to reconcile all this tonight, to the extent I can pull dates and ticket numbers together from old emails. Thankfully I tend to never discard airline reservation emails in the trash so hopefully still have most of these in-between my two email accounts. Boarding passes and the like are hit or miss.
My question is, how long can I go back and get these miles credited? It wasn't very long with US - I think a year or two - but I couldn't find anything in my quick search on AA's website stating the expiration for flight miles being credited. Is it the same as the 18 months for miles reactivation? Thanks! and Ugh. :-( It's probably not that much but still now I am kicking myself for whatever miles I have lost.
Jun 13, 2019, 4:33 pm
#420
Join Date: Sep 2017
Location: DCA/IAD & BUF
Posts: 1,407
Did your AAdvantage number appear on your boarding passes? Did you remember to add your AAdvantage number to your booking when you reserved your AA flights? (Just paying with your AA credit card does not automatically add your AAdvantage number to your reservation record.)
How far can I go back to submit the uncredited miles?