24 hour free cancellation for the award ticket
 

If I booked the award ticket on the AA website at 11pm on May 01 (i.e., ticket pending), the ticket was issued at 2am on May 02 (i.e., ticketed), until what time could I cancel the award ticket for free?

A. 10:59pm on May 02
B. 1:59am on May 03
C. 11:59pm on May 02
D. 11:59pm on May 03

You have 24 hrs from the time you click purchase at aa.com, so the answer is A.

There's no way it could be based on the actual ticketing time, since this can be all over the board depending on complexity of ticket, partner carriers involved, etc. The actual ticketing time is also not easily disclosed to the traveler anywhere that I'm aware of.

C. The end of the day after you made the purchase (not ticketed)

Are you sure? The aa.com terms are pretty specific and say up to 24 hrs from the time of ticket purchase.

From aa.com:

This is based on my experiences. It may also be midnight central time, I'm pretty sure there's a thread on here with an extensive discussion in this.

Edit: maybe that applied to holds, here is one of the discussions:

https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/amer...pr-2017-a.html

The full language is quite clear. It would be 24 hours from the time of purchase, presuming travel on May 3 or later. Thus, 10:59 PM on May 2. The ticket is purchased at the time you complete the transaction. Neither the policy nor the DOT rule say anything about the time the ticket is issued. Note that the AA policy is more generous than the DOT rule in that it permits cancellation up to 2 days prior to travel.

You have up to 24 hours from the time of ticket purchase for a refund if you booked at least 2 days prior to departure. The 24-hour refund policy applies to all ticket types, but you have to cancel the trip to get a refund.

I actually believe that the answer is D.

I think the only thing CSR sees when you call to cancel is "ticketed on May 02", therefore you have until 11:59 pm on May 03 to cancel the ticket for free.

After logging into my AA acct, I can not see the exact time I made the purchase, nor can I see the exact time the ticket was issued, all I see is the "ticketed on" date. I think the CSR probably sees the same thing, and that's why they allow you to cancel for free until 11:59 pm the next day, because the CSR does not have the exact time the ticket was issued either, so they go by date.

If you're expecting to get a refund then that's a huge risk to take given the terms at aa.com specifically state it must be cancelled within 24 hrs from the time of booking. There really isn't any ambiguity. There are lots of notes/data/other stuff associated with a PNR that are visible to AA but not to the passenger when just looking up their reservation at aa.com.

So, to show some light on this:

1. It is A if you go strictly by the T&C's

2. The reality is that you've always had until midnight of the next day in SABRE. So, in practice, it is C.

D is really stretching it. As we know with AA, ticketing can be slow and occasionally takes multiple days (I would never rely on D).

WARNING: If you go by anything other than A, you are taking a risk that you won't be able to cancel for free.

From time ticketed.
 

Awards (vs revenue tickets) have very clear rules for cancellations:

• Cancellations to the original ticket purchased 2 or more days prior to departure will have up to 24 hours from the time it’s ticketed to be eligible for a full ticket refund including the reinstatement of award miles, co-payment amount paid and AAdvantage award processing fee. If you cancel the ticket on aa.com, you must call Reservations to request the reinstatement of award miles and refund of any co-payment or processing fee paid.

Where did you see this language, can you provide a link?