This is a case where purchasing via an OTA (Orbitz?) may allow you to cancel and get a refund within 24 hours of booking, but they are not required to do that. Check their policy to find out what they offer.

Normally I just book thru AA.com. This time around, I have a voucher from a cancelled international trip this past summer. So I have to go to the airport and ticket it.

On another note, I booked this upcoming trip as 2 one ways. Typically what I'll do is book it as refundable economy, then as it gets closer and the trip is firmed up, I'll change it to a non-refundable F ticket.

Of course, Sunday's outbound was cancelled and they left the reservation open but cancelled the itinerary so I could use the value. I went to rebook the trip last night for Feb 7th and they told me that I could either take a change fee for $200 and rebook the ticket, or just take the refund and book another ticket due to the weather? :confused:

If they're willing to refund the money, why can't they just rebook the ticket without penalty?

Now I have to rebook using the remainder of the initial voucher and head to the airport to ticket it AGAIN while waiting for them to refund to ANOTHER voucher. :rolleyes:

Makes no sense.

It is the exact reason I filed a DOT complaint, they canceled the flight and then they want to charge a change fee as well.

Their rationale apparently was that it was outside the waiver window.

Well, hello, I understand the weather isn't necessarily their fault, but if they can't get me down there, it made the whole trip pointless at that time. Best we could reschedule it for 2 weeks later.

I'm not concerned so much about getting the refund. It's not my money, and it was a voucher anyway (a previously canned work trip). If it were my money, it'd be a different story.

and I have no problem with paying the fare difference, but fare difference PLUS a change fee is ridiculous

Yeah. A change fee to actually fly but refund the ticket otherwise - and then buy a new one instead of just changing the ticket? Ridiculous. It cost them more time and money in dealing with me and processing a refund then they would have to just change the ticket. And of course, with using a voucher, it cost me more in time and money having to go to the airport and paying parking fees.

All just to get the original itinerary I bought just shifted 2 weeks later.

I guess the thought never occurred to them that the weather and not being able to get a flight might actually make some trips pointless and need to occur much later than a few days after the fact.

Our 2nd leg of the original flt from MZT to LGA via DFW, arriving LGA @ 8:53 pm on Fri, 1/22 was cancelled (e-mail cancellation notice was sent ~ noon MZT time on the 21st). Talked to Mexico City AA agent & rebooked flt which was scheduled to arrive JFK on Sat, 1/23. Received the 2nd cancellation notice few hrs later & rebooked flt which was schd to arrive LGA on Sun @ 11:31 pm on Sun. Received 3rd cancellation notice on Sat & finally got a flt to JFK which arrived @ 5:40 am on Thur, 1/28. . . 5 days + 9 hrs after the original schedule. We spent 5 extra days in sunny MZT.

Been meaning to ask...


During the weekend of the storm, everyone was throwing out ridiculous wait times of over 2 hrs. I observed that these were for the PLT line and elite lines.

Now Im not elite but each time I called the 4337300 number, I got in within 1 minute. Over 5 times, from Friday through Monday, I got a human on the phone in less than a minute. Is that the norm? Were the LONG wait times listed only for the ExPlt and Plt desks? If so, as an elite, are you..."stuck" with only using those lines or can't your itineraries be handled by the "cattle class" 4337300 line?