No incentive to cancel award flights?
Dec 14, 2018, 5:42 pm
#16
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Because they get $150 vs. nil, and might have people on standby and when you no show they earn money from someone else. And at some point you have to fly or return the points because the ticket expires. They will gain from the fee or the usage of the points and are patient.
Dec 14, 2018, 5:47 pm
#17
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Dec 14, 2018, 8:18 pm
#18
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Yes, you could not cancel out of spite. What's a mystery to me, however, is why some people need an incentive to do the right/courteous/honest (pick one or substitute your own choice) thing.
Dec 14, 2018, 8:25 pm
#19
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Of course, not canceling also means he might be depriving someone else the opportunity to get a flight that would be better for them
Dec 14, 2018, 8:49 pm
#20
Join Date: Apr 2017
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What they haven't realized is that airlines factor no-shows into revenue management, and don't need a passenger's permission to sell more tickets for a particular class of service than there are seats.
Dec 14, 2018, 8:58 pm
#21
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I need to cancel two award flights to Hawaii due to a family emergency. Customer service tells me I can change to a different date, same destination, with no penalty, but this is not an option for me. To get the award miles back, I have to pay $150 for each flight. Out of spite, I could just not cancel, and deny American the ability to rebook those seats for revenue. It's a mystery to me why they would not provide some sort of incentive, e.g. some percentage of miles returned, so that they could rebook the seats.
Well, here’s the deal. If you cancel two awards from the same account it’s $150+$25.
Some change the dates to as far out as possible and use schedule changes of ~2 hours or more to cancel and redeposit the miles free of charge.
But hey, exact your revenge and lose your miles. That’ll show them!
Dec 14, 2018, 9:22 pm
#22
Join Date: May 2005
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I need to cancel two award flights to Hawaii due to a family emergency. Customer service tells me I can change to a different date, same destination, with no penalty, but this is not an option for me. To get the award miles back, I have to pay $150 for each flight. Out of spite, I could just not cancel, and deny American the ability to rebook those seats for revenue. It's a mystery to me why they would not provide some sort of incentive, e.g. some percentage of miles returned, so that they could rebook the seats.
If you do mean forfeit, then what's appropriate? 5,000 miles per ticket? To get your mileage balance back up and replace those miles you could buy them from AA for about $150. Whoa!! Anyone else get a sense of deja-vu just then??
Dec 14, 2018, 9:27 pm
#23
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The odds of AA selling every single seat except the ones you will be using is near zero. Either the flight will be not full, so there was no revenue for your seat whether you use it or not, or the flight will be oversold, in which case AA will get the revenue for your seat when someone fills it.
So 98% of the time, your decision is revenue neutral to AA.
So it's pretty much your choice if you want to spent $175 to retain points worth probably $1,000 or more, or to "show them" by letting $1,000 or more of your money vaporize.
So 98% of the time, your decision is revenue neutral to AA.
So it's pretty much your choice if you want to spent $175 to retain points worth probably $1,000 or more, or to "show them" by letting $1,000 or more of your money vaporize.
Dec 14, 2018, 11:42 pm
#24
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I got around the $150 redeposit fee by making Executive Platinum a few months later. I was Plat at the time and knew I’d make EXP so I just moved the ticket out to a dummy date much later and when I made EXP, got the ticket cancelled and redeposited for free 😁
Dec 15, 2018, 3:41 am
#25
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If OP cancelled a day or two before T-0, (theoretically) AA might be able to sell his seat for big $; if he cancels at T-5 minutes it is unlikely they'll have a big $ buyer.
Dec 15, 2018, 3:59 am
#26
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If the flight isn't oversold then they'll sell tickets regardless of what the OP does.
Dec 16, 2018, 3:41 am
#27
Join Date: Feb 2000
Posts: 6,540
Use it to your advantage for free redeposits and ideal flight selection (without regard to restricted inventory).
Dec 16, 2018, 4:03 am
#28
Join Date: Nov 2018
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Rules are rules, and the rules AA (and most every other airline) have are meant to be as punitive to the customer as legally possible to maximize revenue in the long run.
8 years ago, a relative member needed to to fly her return from Hawaii a few days early for a family emergency. AA said there was no 'residual value' left on her discount Y ticket bought on third party site since the value was 'used up' on her flight there. Doing a change would be the change fee + entire new cost of the one way flight.
Again, AA provided zero incentive to change, cancel, or do anything to that originally booked ticket so she left it as is, hoped the seat just flew empty, and booked a different airline home.
8 years ago, a relative member needed to to fly her return from Hawaii a few days early for a family emergency. AA said there was no 'residual value' left on her discount Y ticket bought on third party site since the value was 'used up' on her flight there. Doing a change would be the change fee + entire new cost of the one way flight.
Again, AA provided zero incentive to change, cancel, or do anything to that originally booked ticket so she left it as is, hoped the seat just flew empty, and booked a different airline home.
I remember few years back I booked delta (post-merger) to LAX from Houghton. However, a week before I found that I booked a wrong date so I called to change my flight date. Guess what?
They told me because I bought at discounted price, so there is a change fee and price difference, which end up the total was more than I just book a new return flight. The only good part is they offer me to request for refund, but they would only refund in voucher instead of direct debit back to my CC/
Since then I would just very careful when booking any US main airlines
Dec 16, 2018, 10:51 pm
#29
Join Date: Nov 2013
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AA expects a certain number of seats to go unflown. If anything they'll make more money if you don't cancel since revenue management will see a certain load and will allow oversold conditions to go on for more money. For example, back in 2013 I was on a flight where Y cost more than J because if someone was dumb enough to buy the economy seat (or corporate policies did not allow business even when it makes financial sense), AA could move someone up to business.
Dec 16, 2018, 10:56 pm
#30
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Conversely, Southwest (the third-largest "US main airline") offers a far more customer-friendly change/cancellation policy than most non-US airlines.