What is the booking code?

You have to look at the fare rules before you purchase. The fact that you got a refund confirms that it was a refundable fare. Had it been non-refundable, no amount of fees would have refunded it. I know that doesn't help you and for people that don't book a lot of tickets it's easy to see where they would think refundable means 100% refundable with no fees.

It sounds like you have purchased a discount business class fare
The lowest fares on that route seem to have a cancellation penalty of $500
As such you will get refunded the amount you paid apart from the penalty of $500

It is a refundable fare - with a non refundable fare, you would not get any refund

Yea, unfortunately just because aa.com says it's "refundable" that doesn't necessarily mean it's fully refundable. Not the first time this has come up:

https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/amer...penalties.html

As mentioned above, always have to check detailed fare rules to be sure.

Thanks.....I am very careful when buying air tickets to read everything. There was no mention of non-refundable or a fee for getting a refund.

I don't understand the "non refundable but refundable with a fee" As stated, if it's non-refundable, it's non-refundable. I wouldn't have booked the ticket. If they said there was a fee for a refund I wouldn't have booked the ticket four months in advance.

I think they screwed up and are covering their you know what. It's my word against theirs, they have my money, so they win. Except I will use up my FF miles on AA and then take my business elsewhere. Sad since I've been a member of their FF program since it started and have collected well ove a million miles over the years.

Like all the above explained, it's refundable with penalty. There is little help playing the DYKWIM card. So what's the fare code?

There is some merit to the argument of this being deceptive. It is. I think it is ridiculous to assume and act like consumers should be lawyers and read the book worth of fare rules.

I don;t have an issue with Basic Economy or anything as yes, it sucks but AA is upfront about it. This seems slimy. If you call it refundable, it should be refundable. Not "refundable" with a fee while you do a headstand in South America type of Refundable.

I do agree to some extent, and that's why they changed the wording on aa.com to "flexible" and "fully flexible". It's still easy to miss the fare rules section for non-season travelers, and the all caps rules could be confusing, like

PENALTIES - CANCELLATIONS ANY TIME CANCELLATIONS PERMITTED FOR CANCEL/NO-SHOW. NOTE - TEXT BELOW NOT VALIDATED FOR AUTOPRICING. THE ORIGNAL NON-REFUNDABLE AMOUNT REMAINS NON- REFUNDABLE. CANCELLATIONS ARE PERMITTED WITHIN TICKET VALIDITY OF ORIGINAL TICKET. FOR CANCELLATION AFTER DEPARTURE THE REFUND WILL BE THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN FARE PAID AND FARE FOR JOURNEY TRAVELLED. ----- FOR TRAVEL AGENCY BOOKINGS MADE IN MEXICO / THE CARIBBEAN / CENTRAL AND SOUTH AMERICA - AA WILL ASSESS A USD 25.00 FEE ON ANY UNTICKETED RESERVATION NOT CANCELED BEFORE DEPARTURE. CHANGES ANY TIME CHANGES PERMITTED FOR NO-SHOW/REISSUE/REVALIDATION. NOTE - TEXT BELOW NOT VALIDATED FOR AUTOPRICING. A CHANGE IS A ROUTING / OR DATE / OR FLIGHT MODIFICATION. CHANGE IS PERMITTED WITHIN TICKET VALIDITY OF ORIGINAL TICKET. THE ORIGINAL AMOUNT REMAINS NON-REFUNDABLE. -------------------------------------------------- WHERE THIS FARE IS COMBINED WITH ANOTHER FARE THE PENALTY CONDITIONS OF THE CHANGED FARE COMPONENT WILL APPLY. -------------------------------------------------- CALCULATION OF REISSUES //CHANGES BEFORE OUTBOUND DEPARTURE// WHEN THE FIRST FARE COMPONENT IS CHANGED THE ITINERARY MUST BE REPRICED USING CURRENT FARES IN EFFECT ON THE DATE THE TICKET IS REISSUED. ----- WHEN THERE ARE NO CHANGES TO THE FIRST FARE COMPONENT BUT OTHER FARE COMPONENTS ARE CHANGED THE ITINERARY MUST BE REPRICED USING HISTORICAL FARES IN EFFECT ON THE PREVIOUS TICKETING DATE OR CURRENT FARES IN EFFECT ON THE DATE OF TICKET REISSUE WHICHEVER IS LOWER. -------------------------------------------------- //CHANGES AFTER DEPARTURE// THE ITINERARY MUST BE REPRICED USING HISTORICAL FARES IN EFFECT ON THE PREVIOUS TICKETING DATE. ----- WHEN THE NEW ITINERARY RESULTS IN A HIGHER FARE THE DIFFERENCE WILL BE COLLECTED. ----- WHEN THE NEW ITINERARY RESULTS IN A LOWER FARE A REFUND OF THE RESIDUAL AMOUNT LESS THE APPLICABLE PENALTY WILL BE MADE.

I would rather read something like:
USD$100 charge for cancellation before departure USD$100 charge for cancellation after departure USD$100 no-show charge
(A dummy from CX)

Agreed. the CX rules are so simple. QR is the same way.

https://i.imgur.com/UIgV8AP.png

This is so simple to understand. changes, cancellation and no show - clearly listed out.

In this case, I do not think that you read everything in the detailed fare rules

It is not new for AA's discount business class fares have cancellation penalties

As far as refundable goes...

non refundable - if you cancel , you receive zero of the fare back - in some cases AA allows the value of the fare to be stored and used as credit in the future
refundable with penalty - in case of cancellation, a refund of the amount paid minus a cancellation penalty will be refunded to the original form of purchase
refundable with no penalty - in case of cancellation a full refund will be received

I do not think that AA screwed up - just that you missed the penalty clause. It is not your word vs its word since it would be able to show when the fare was published if it needed to

You can take your business to another airline if you want to, but other airlines do exactly the same

I've noted that too as I am waiting for this year's QR ORD-SIN J super sales :)

At the end of the day, if there's no regulation forcing domestic airlines to follow the "Plain English" Rule like SEC did to public companies, I see little incentives in domestic 3 to change the wording.

Read the fare rules people! And know ur terms before u go posting about hidden fees!

Me too. (well IAH-SIN) last year got IAH-SIN in J for 1600 (or roundabouts).

Sadly, you are right - it just seems so shortsighted. There are plenty of people who run afoul of the rules even when they are clearly stated (see reviews of Spirit and Ryanair)... so I don't see why the US3 need to bury stuff in such a shady manner.

AA is right technically, but their business practices are deceptive.

It is, IMO, unreasonable to expect people to read pages and pages of ALL CAPS non-formatted legalese.

As OP still has not responded with the fare basis, we do not know what the fare rules for his ticket were. Until that happens, this is speculation.

But, it does seem that the OP chose to purchase a penalty rather than a full fare ticket. AA, just like most other carriers, offers flexible/refundable fares some of which carry a penalty and some of which do not. The former are generally cheaper than the latter.

The rules seem clear and one need not be a lawyer to read them. At a minimum, if one does not understand, one is free to call in and presumably be told that there is a fee to cancel and refund.

There is also a short paragraph at the top of the fare rules which summarizes the key information and warns the consumer that he must read further. This would say something such as "change or cancellation fee may apply".