edfisher

You are in the same boat I was last week and I feel for you. If you cancel the remaining portion of your original flight online and then file for a refund online AA will say that you voluntarily cancelled your flight and issue you a voucher. However the voucher will not be for the original price of your international ticket, it will only be for the current value of the remaining domestic flights. Try putting the original ticket number into your refund page and I bet it will say "not found" . When the international flights were cancelled you were probably reticketed with new numbers. I have a terrible feeling this will be a nightmare for you as it has been for me. I ended up calling my credit card and requested a chargeback for the entire price of the ticket. AA is a terrible company with which to deal. Every time I fly them I end up in a battle trying to get back something they took from me. I am filing a formal complaint against them with the DOT Aviation Bureau for failing to issue me a full refund after they cancelled my flights/significantly changed my itinerary. (Their words to qualify for a cash refund)

edfisher

It is now mid April and I was flying in 10 days to ANU. AA is looking for any reason to never give passengers a cash refund. AA cancelled the international flight and never informed me. Last week I saw on my App that the domestic portion of the ticket was still there but had been altered with a connection. I called AA and told them that the remaining flights did me no good as the final destination of the original booking had been removed. They then cancelled the flights completely and now they are telling me that because "I voluntarily" cancelled my tickets I would only get a voucher. They issued a voucher not for the original amount of the ticker $1238.24 but only the current value of the remaining domestic portion $66.41. AA has basically stolen my money. I called my credit card company and put the transactions for the tickets into dispute for a chargeback and I have filed a formal complaint with the DOT Aviation Bureau in writing.

ajf87

American for whatever reason has been fairly bad at keeping customers abreast of schedule changes. I had travel for late May on three separate reservations (one Web Special, two cash, all domestic one-ways, five flights total). Two flights were canceled and one was moved 3 1/2 hours. Not even an email about an itinerary change, I didn't see this until I was looking in my app and saw two segments no longer existed.

However - canceling and getting the refund and mileage redeposit took all of 10 minutes and there was no wait times or fees. And they went ahead and refunded a one-way that technically should have been a voucher, since the change was within four hours, when they could have griefed me. They were very accommodating, and the miles were redeposited instantly. I expect the refunds will be quicker than the 7-12 business days they claimed. I do have Platinum, I'm not sure if that made a difference in my wait time or overall experience. 6.9.0

mvoight

Your misunderstanding of how to cancel, doesn't mean AA is being deceitful. Calling AA or contacting them via their social media sites would be better than stating they are being deceitful.
The cancellation of one part of a trip doesn't automatically cancel the entire trip, and if you are 36 hours away, I cannot imagine why you would be searching what the DOT says or what we say, before asking AA to resolve the issue first.

GrumpyYoungMan

The Twitter team can take care of that as well.

Mr. Vker

Maybe deceitful is a strong word, but the OP says he tried to refund and it showed as nonrefundalble. The system showed his flights in place one area and not another-supposedly preventing the refund process. Many cases its a game of chicken-who cancels first? The passenger-only to get a credit-or the airline and has to give refunds. I can surely see why the situation presented looked the way it did to the OP.

PHL

Yes, since they changed the routing and, consequently, the schedule, you should be able to request cancelation with full refund per their international tariff.

https://www.aa.com/i18n/Tariffs/AA1.html#0080

1. CHANGE IN SCHEDULE WHEN A PASSENGER WILL BE DELAYED BECAUSE OF A CHANGE IN SCHEDULE, CARRIER WILL ARRANGE AT CARRIER’S DISCRETION TO EITHER:
   • (A) TRANSPORT THE PASSENGER ON AN AA OPERATED FLIGHTTO THE DESTINATION, NEXT STOPOVER POINT OR TRANSFER POINT SHOWN ON ITS PORTION OF THE TICKET, WITHOUT STOPOVER AT NO ADDITIONAL COST TO THE PASSENGER, PROVIDED THAT A PASSENGER WILL BE TRANSPORTED IN A HIGHER CLASS OF SERVICE ONLY IF THE FLIGHT FOR WHICH A SEAT IN A HIGHER CLASS OF SERVICE IS AVAILABLE WILL PROVIDE AN EARLIER ARRIVAL THAN BEING TRANSPORTED ON A FLIGHT IN THE ORIGINAL CLASS OF SERVICE ON WHICH SPACE IS AVAILABLE; OR
   • (B) ENDORSE THE UNUSED TICKET FOR THE PURPOSE OF REROUTING OVER ANOTHER CARRIER WITH WHOM AA HAS AN AGREEMENT TO DO SO
   • (C) NOTWITHSTANDING THE ABOVE, THE CARRIER WILL ISSUE A REFUND IN ACCORDANCE WITH RULE 90(REFUNDS)IF THE PASSENGER SO REQUESTS.
     NOTE: CHANGE IN SCHEDULE DOES NOT INCLUDE FORCE MAJEURE EVENTS AS DEFINED IN RULE 80
     NOTE:IN THE EVENT THAT AA CHANGES THE TIME OF DEPARTURE OR ROUTING OF A FLIGHT IN A MANNER THAT DOES NOT CONSTITUTE A SCHEDULE CHANGE AS DEFINED HEREIN, AAWILL TRANSPORT THE PASSENGER ON THE RESCHEDULED FLIGHT AT NO ADDITIONAL COST TO THE PASSENGER.IF THE PASSENGER ELECTS NOT TO TRAVEL ON THE RESCHEDULED FLIGHT, AA WILL REFUND THE VALUE OF THE AFFECTED COUPONS IN THE FORM OF A NONREFUNDABLE AA TRAVEL VOUCHER.THE AA TRAVEL VOUCHER IS VALID FOR ONE YEAR FROM DATE OF ISSUE AND MAY BE USED AS PAYMENT FOR AIR TRAVEL RELATED SERVICE ON AA ONLY.VOUCHERS WILL NOT BE ISSUED WHEN THE CHANGE IN SCHEDULE INVOLVES A FLIGHT NUMBER CHANGE ONLY.

mvoight

That is why I pointed out, to contact AA about the issue, especially if the flight time was near, rather than assume AA was being deceitful. AA isn't trying to screw him out of money. Normally when a flight is canceled, the system tries to replace it, and it doesn't automatically cancel the rest of the trip, since there might still be reason to keep the other flights. Web self service is great, when it works, but when it doesn't then the thing to do is contact AA.

Mike99

The AA Twitter team canceled my award trip and started a refund of the miles in less than an hour.

Update: The miles were back in my account 24 hours later. They said that the taxes that I paid would be credited to my CC.

neo_781

If I put myself in the shoes of the average traveler and the most significant portion of the trips (i.e. the international leg) has been canceled then I don't think the OP has an unreasonable expectation to assume the whole trip should be automatically cancelled.

Obviously as frequent travelers and users of this site we know that doesn't happen this way.

Also I think its understandable to be confused and not know that the online system isn't capable of automatically requesting refunds for this scenario. If you look at other non-travel business with shopping websites you see easy online cancellation so it not unreasonable to think that AA could do that as well.

Finally, oh yeah, maybe the OP is a bit busy right now, they do say they are in healthcare.

cmo3p

A domestic trip I purchased in February for a nonstop flight was just changed to a connecting flight. From what I have read here that should qualify for a refund, but the email announcing the change also said AA has issued a new ticket number but it doesn't say what the new ticket number is. The flight isn't until May 25 and I am now certain I won't be taking the trip but I am wondering - should I wait and see if there are further changes and/or cancellations or go ahead and cancel and try for a refund now? And will I need the new ticket number or will the old ticket number still work for a refund request?

johnr863

So I just got off the phone with AA and they would not refund my award ticket that AA changed from a nonstop to one with stops. The agent said because the new flights with stops are leaving 1 hour and 50 minutes earlier and arriving only 37 minutes later than the original, the reservation is not eligible for refund. I thought with the current policy if AA changes a reservation from nonstop to one with stops, the reservation IS eligible for a refund regardless of the times. Am I wrong or was the agent incorrect?

aacar

The agent was wrong. A change from nonstop to connecting is clearly stated as being eligible for a refund in AA's schedule change policy.

Often1

It is neither deceitful nor poor IT nor a violation of the DOT rules restated in its April 3, warning letter.

Not all of OP's ticket has been cancelled. Therefore it is up to OP to determine whether he wishes to fly the remaining segment and have a refund or credit for the cancelled segment. AA does not (and should not) presuppose what its customers want. FT is chock full of rants where carriers have done something which turned out not to be what the passenger wanted.

OP may call, tweet or use the refund cancellation tool online. All three will lead to a refund.

flyinpod

Thanks everyone i finally got through this morning. I didn't ask why it didn't show as canceled on my booking i figured they were flat out given the hold time to answer. My refund would not go through due to the amounts not being correct. In the end i had to do it online. They tell me 2-4 weeks which is fine. None of the flights on the ticket can be used as the domestic segment is after the international segment, unless i can teleport myself there . Thanks for your help everyone. Maybe deceitful was a strong word to use, i guess i just went into panic mode after all the articles i read online which had said that airlines are making it really difficult to get a refund. If it all goes through smoothly i will have no issues in dealing with AA again.