Complete Noob question - but is the only way to cancel an AA flight to call them? I booked 12 hours ago, realized I need to move my flight slightly, but I can not find a single cancel option on their "manage booking site". Go to refunds, it redirects back to the same area.

Complete Noob question - but is the only way to cancel an AA flight to call them? I booked 12 hours ago, realized I need to move my flight slightly, but I can not find a single cancel option on their "manage booking site". Go to refunds, it redirects back to the same area.

From the specific trip info, there's a cancel trip button next to the functions where you can send to calendar, etc etc.

From the specific trip info, there's a cancel trip button next to the functions where you can send to calendar, etc etc.

A week ago, I booked 3 F tickets ($27k) DFW-FRA for myself and two co-workers to go look at some equipment with a potential customer. Customer cancels trip, but I'm able to cancel at hour 23. Fast forward a couple of days and customer can now go again. Airfare has gone up to $10k per ticket, so I keep watching and holding, hoping it'll go back down.

It doesn't - so I call AA today to re-ticket at the higher price using the credit from the canceled flights. AAgent, without mentioning it, is able to get the original tickets, including PNR, re-instated. Saved us almost $3k. He didn't mention why - I'm assuming the tickets were already so expensive they took pity on me?

A week ago, I booked 3 F tickets ($27k) DFW-FRA for myself and two co-workers to go look at some equipment with a potential customer. Customer cancels trip, but I'm able to cancel at hour 23. Fast forward a couple of days and customer can now go again. Airfare has gone up to $10k per ticket, so I keep watching and holding, hoping it'll go back down.

It doesn't - so I call AA today to re-ticket at the higher price using the credit from the canceled flights. AAgent, without mentioning it, is able to get the original tickets, including PNR, re-instated. Saved us almost $3k. He didn't mention why - I'm assuming the tickets were already so expensive they took pity on me?

So...interesting thing happened. I know hardly anyone responds to this thread but I thought I might as well share my story.

My wife buys a ticket on my behalf without reading that you can only cancel/refund a ticket within 24 hrs of purchase if it's 7 or more days before the flight. The flight in question was 1 day before the flight, so she should have known better, but she's learning, so it is what it is!

As soon as I get the email notice, I immediately call EXP customer service to cancel and refund the ticket, but to no avail, as expected. While on the phone, I cancel the ticket and also, as advised by the agent, I requested a refund with the excuse, "mistaken purchase by family member".

While on that call, the agent suggests changing the ticket at no cost. So, for some reason, I totally forgot that I just requested a refund, and proceed to try and change the ticket to 3 other tickets (different origin/destinations) and also different family members. Plus there was some residual that the agent said would reach me in the form of a paper voucher through snail mail.

That was 10 days ago. Fast forward to today and I get an email from AA indicating that the refund was processed yesterday to my CC. I'm perplexed now. The replacement tickets I purchased are second week of Jan and all 3 show "ticket pending". I guess this means that I would expect those tickets to be cancelled, once word of the refund gets to the booking team?

Anyone who has a clue what might happen--feel free to speculate! I'm worried if I call AA to inquire about what happens to those 3 tickets, then they'll be cancelled for sure, but the poker player in me is also thinking, I might get 3 tickets for free if the refund ends up hitting my CC! lol!!!

Since the tickets are in mid-Jan, at a very low fare, I'm also worried about waiting too long and then those fares go up...so I was tempted to call AA and then re-purchase them if I need to.

Decisions, decisions!

So...interesting thing happened. I know hardly anyone responds to this thread but I thought I might as well share my story.

My wife buys a ticket on my behalf without reading that you can only cancel/refund a ticket within 24 hrs of purchase if it's 7 or more days before the flight. The flight in question was 1 day before the flight, so she should have known better, but she's learning, so it is what it is!

As soon as I get the email notice, I immediately call EXP customer service to cancel and refund the ticket, but to no avail, as expected. While on the phone, I cancel the ticket and also, as advised by the agent, I requested a refund with the excuse, "mistaken purchase by family member".

While on that call, the agent suggests changing the ticket at no cost. So, for some reason, I totally forgot that I just requested a refund, and proceed to try and change the ticket to 3 other tickets (different origin/destinations) and also different family members. Plus there was some residual that the agent said would reach me in the form of a paper voucher through snail mail.

That was 10 days ago. Fast forward to today and I get an email from AA indicating that the refund was processed yesterday to my CC. I'm perplexed now. The replacement tickets I purchased are second week of Jan and all 3 show "ticket pending". I guess this means that I would expect those tickets to be cancelled, once word of the refund gets to the booking team?

Anyone who has a clue what might happen--feel free to speculate! I'm worried if I call AA to inquire about what happens to those 3 tickets, then they'll be cancelled for sure, but the poker player in me is also thinking, I might get 3 tickets for free if the refund ends up hitting my CC! lol!!!

Since the tickets are in mid-Jan, at a very low fare, I'm also worried about waiting too long and then those fares go up...so I was tempted to call AA and then re-purchase them if I need to.

Decisions, decisions!

Booked and ticketed a reservation on 12/5 ORD-PEK-ORD. That evening, sisted decided she wanted to come along, so cancelled reservation on 12/6 and rebooked a new record with us on the same PNR to make SWU/Mileage upgrades easier. Since we can't hold reservations for 24 hours anymore, I was sure to cancel within the 24 hour period.

I just got an email from AA saying refund of $201 processed - when ticket was $501! Called EXP desk and got a very unhelpful agent "nothing I can do, you need to call refund department next week". Tweeted @American Air - same thing, go online and sort it out with refund department. Of course, the link they sent me only lets me see that the incorrect amount was refunded and no way to communicate with refund team. I am running a training program all next week so don't have time to deal with this. Called Chase (since I used my Sapphire Reserve card to book this) and filed a dispute. They were VERY helpful and said that they would place a temp credit on the account, I will not have to deal with it and they will take care of everything.

Glad this is my last AA trip - my EXP expires 2/28 and I am just moving everything over to UA. So far, they have come through whenever there is an issue since I did my 1K challenge.

Booked and ticketed a reservation on 12/5 ORD-PEK-ORD. That evening, sisted decided she wanted to come along, so cancelled reservation on 12/6 and rebooked a new record with us on the same PNR to make SWU/Mileage upgrades easier. Since we can't hold reservations for 24 hours anymore, I was sure to cancel within the 24 hour period.

I just got an email from AA saying refund of $201 processed - when ticket was $501! Called EXP desk and got a very unhelpful agent "nothing I can do, you need to call refund department next week". Tweeted @American Air - same thing, go online and sort it out with refund department. Of course, the link they sent me only lets me see that the incorrect amount was refunded and no way to communicate with refund team. I am running a training program all next week so don't have time to deal with this. Called Chase (since I used my Sapphire Reserve card to book this) and filed a dispute. They were VERY helpful and said that they would place a temp credit on the account, I will not have to deal with it and they will take care of everything.

Glad this is my last AA trip - my EXP expires 2/28 and I am just moving everything over to UA. So far, they have come through whenever there is an issue since I did my 1K challenge.

UA used to have big problems with the refund process being convoluted and taking forever (weeks/months). They received so many DOT complaints that I believe they were fined on the issue.

UA has improved their web site (a couple years ago) so that whenever you cancel a ticket, the next page it goes to is about how you would like your refund and you click through and the process begins. In most cases it completes within a couple hours.

AA should take notice. At least the page you get when cancelling mentions you need to go to the refunds process but it would be trivial work to submit that refund request with the ticket# and last name. The fact that it does not do that automatically implies AA is not trying to make it easy intentionally.
Also the refund page asks for a document #. That confused me. At first I tried the record locator then tried the ticket #. Glad I was experienced enough to figure that out.

I just had to do my first AA cancellation and noticed the stark difference.

UA used to have big problems with the refund process being convoluted and taking forever (weeks/months). They received so many DOT complaints that I believe they were fined on the issue.

UA has improved their web site (a couple years ago) so that whenever you cancel a ticket, the next page it goes to is about how you would like your refund and you click through and the process begins. In most cases it completes within a couple hours.

AA should take notice. At least the page you get when cancelling mentions you need to go to the refunds process but it would be trivial work to submit that refund request with the ticket# and last name. The fact that it does not do that automatically implies AA is not trying to make it easy intentionally.
Also the refund page asks for a document #. That confused me. At first I tried the record locator then tried the ticket #. Glad I was experienced enough to figure that out.

I just had to do my first AA cancellation and noticed the stark difference.

E-mail re refund for trip I NEVER booked
 

I got an email from AA that a refund for $254 was issued:
Ticket#: XXX...XXX
Locator: 3YYYYY*
To MasterCard ending in: ZZZZ
I did a Google search of my gmails, no ticket with that locator was ever issued(to ME), I don't have a MC ending in those 4 digits.
Why did I get that email.:confused::o
*since the merger all AA (USAir) tickets have only LETTERS (NO numbers).

E-mail re refund for trip I NEVER booked
 

I got an email from AA that a refund for $254 was issued:
Ticket#: XXX...XXX
Locator: 3YYYYY*
To MasterCard ending in: ZZZZ
I did a Google search of my gmails, no ticket with that locator was ever issued(to ME), I don't have a MC ending in those 4 digits.
Why did I get that email.:confused::o
*since the merger all AA (USAir) tickets have only LETTERS (NO numbers).

Phishing spam??
Do not click any link