Antarius

AA allows for a refund within 24 hours of booking, although the website states an exemption for flights booked within 2 days of departure.

I had called the EXP desk to inquire what the rules were within 2 days and was told that you cannot get a refund (as expected from above) but you could make some changes, such as a flight time adjustment etc. As long as the fare was the same. Supporting this, I have made some changes in the past.

today, I was told by 2 agents that within 2 days, you cant do anything, refund or alter. And this bit me as I booked a later flight for today than I wanted (the earlier flight had availability but aa.com would crash every time I tried to select it. As I was on a call, I grabbed the later flight with the intent of changing it later, assuming inventory was there).

Which is the right policy? And either way, I'm less than pleased by the EXP desk and their dispelling of incorrect information.

mvoight

Refunds, changes, etc are governed by the rules of the ticket.. That said, I am not aware of any 2 day rule such as you have stated.
However, I have made changes without a fee, after booking and paying, but before the ticket was issued.
I don't see the point in booking a later flight if your original intent was to take the earlier flight.

Dave Noble

The 24 hour cancellation policy does indeed exempt anything booked within 2 days of departure - as such any changes or cancellation penalties will be in accordance with the fare rules

If you purchased a fare that has change fees, then you would need to pay the change fees; if the fare does not allow changes, then no changes

For a domestic ticket, it sounds like the EP agent gave correct information - some changes can be performed , but these are in accordance with ticket rules

ajklink

Antarius

AA allows any ticket to be cancelled for a full refund (or changed without a fee, which is the same thing as cancel/rebook) within 24 hours of booking. The caveat is this must be 2 days or more before travel. So if you book a non-refundable/200 USD change fee flight for 2 months from now, you can change it within 24 hours, even if it has been ticketed.

It was a weird situation of aa.com not working, being on a call and not being able to call AA and both flights having 2 and 1 seat left (across all fare buckets). So in the event that the earlier wasn't available and was showing phantom availability, I had the later as a fallback. But the plan was to grab the earlier.

The good news is I made it on standby on the earlier.

Antarius

SDFC has been wrecked to the point of being ostensibly useless. It allowed SDFC on the earlier flight ONLY if I took the flight from HOU-DFW 3 hours earlier (despite the HOU-DFW flight I was booked arriving 1.5 hours before the earlier onward flight).

I was trying to SDFC the connecting flight, but whatever opaque rules they have in place now for SDFC, it wouldn't allow it. I ended up getting on Standby and clearing.

Antarius

Thank you for the information.

But no, they did not give me the correct information the first several times around. I was told you could change flights without a change fee within 24 hours in < 2 days. I simply was not allowed a refund. Which was false, as I was told later (and you confirmed above)

The quality of the EXP desk is rapidly declining. I wrote to AA CR about this. Doubt it will do anything, but needed to at least say something.

samwise6222

ijgordon

I think third party travel agents have always had the ability to "void" tickets after issuance within 24 hours (or often longer), so this would be essentially a manifestation of that (of course I'm surprised Expedia or Orbitz wouldn't still somehow try to extract $$ from customers in this situation...)

mvoight

Yes, I was aware of the 2 day deadline for the 24 hour cancel. I was trying to say I was not aware of a policy indicating the ticket could be changed, without charge, if you had purchased it within those 2 days
I could not find any written policy on that

Antarius

Thanks for the suggestion. Will check it out next time.

Ah understood. The website says "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. " . but nothing about changes. Which is why I had called AA and asked.

It definitely seems that there is no exemption within 2 days, the EXP desk was just incorrect.

Dave Noble

...del

samwise6222

well with everyone pushing people towards direct booking, I don't think they can't extract fees at every opportunity.