ajf87

It still took until late last week for the refund to actually post on my credit card.

johnash

We have been waiting "pending review" for 18 days. I Twitter messaged AA and they told me not to worry, it was in hand. I'll give them a few more days before chasing again. It's a lot of money to be refunded and I wonder if their system is somehow slipping us down the queue?!

Frequentflyer99

Apologies not to have trawled through all the posts but a quick question: I have a (very expensive) fully refundable ticket for much later in the year that I need to cancel. When I get to the cancel option online I get this message ""There's no need to call Reservations right now. You can cancel your trip and use the value of your unused ticket toward future travel on American. If you cancel, we’ll send an email that includes your ticket number. Keep this handy so you can refer to it when you call to rebook."

I just want to check that if I go ahead and push the cancel button I am not somehow locking myself into a credit voucher situation, but will still be able to go ahead through the normal online refund process using the ticket number. If someone could please confirm this it would be very helpful.

wolf539

I can beat that! lol Been pending review for 29 days so far... Reached out through all the usual routes (including twitter) and still waiting on a meaningful update or actual refund.

johnash

Thanks. I suppose that's a bit of a relief. A bit like when there's a power cut and you find your neighbours have no power either! Perhaps you'd post when it's been processed. I promise to too!

As a point of information, refunds for 5 Star service we'd booked were issued by the agent immediately and appeared on my CC after about 5 or 6 days.

himomer

33 days for me, but I was told upfront it could take longer than usual and might need “extra research” — partially used, mixed class, ex-US origination, SWU, fare information missing. Agent said she’d have to “just make up a fare” to get the process going.

JPG3392

I would advise against pushing that button. The best way to receive a cash refund to the original form of purchase is to phone the airline.

Flying for Fun

I had two tickets booked MIA-SJU 03/19 & two Y-UP tickets booked SJU-CLT-ORD 03/28. Total fare was about $1100. I was supposed to be going on a Southern Caribbean Cruise to the Dutch Antilles. That cruise was cancelled so I cancelled the AA reservations on 3/10 expecting a travel voucher I could use at a later date.

I have no idea if the flights actually flew but after reading this thread, I thought I would check out my ticket numbers for a possible refund on 4/17

Surprisingly, the two Y-UP fares were eligible for a refund. The other two were not eligible but I remember that a time change had occured on that segment that was approximately an hour later. I submitted those as well noting the time change.

Time frame.

03/10/20 Flights Cancelled
04/17/20 Refund Requested
04/23/20 Request Processed
04/24/20 Email confirmations of refund processed
04/28/20 Funds credited to my Credit Card

AA status : None!

I also had an AA award booked TPE-HKG-BNE-AKL for February 7th that I had to cancel. I was booked on a Auckland to Sydney cruise which was denying boarding of passengers who were in or transited China, Hong Kong & Taiwan. When I explained the situation to the AA CSR, she put me on a brief hold, then cancelled the award, refunded the taxes & redeposited the miles without a fee.

I have been pretty impressed with AA lately. So much better than prior experiences.

James

jordyn

That is not very good advice, since even a cursory reading of this thread will reveal that the lowest friction way to get a refund from AA is to request it on the website.

Having said that, AA is basically trying to trick people into not requesting a refund on that page. For a fully refundable fare, there's no harm in cancelling and then requesting a refund but you do actually need to continue onto the refunds site and go through the refund request flow because just cancelling the flight will result in a residual credit rather than a refund.

asnovici

is this still happening? Will an agent offer 20% bonus if I accept a voucher instead of refund when I call to cancel a booking that has a few flights cancelled within it? I haven’t heard much lately on that bonus option

jcatman

Was in "pending review" holding pattern for 28 calendar days before I received the email entitled "Your refund is complete". Credit to the original form of payment appeared 3 days after that email.

Could be time to revise the language on prefunds.aa.com which reads: When you submit a refund request, we'll determine if your ticket is eligible. It may take up to 7 business days for this process to happen.

Frequentflyer99

Thanks for this, which is what I had done in the past. I just want to check that AA has not followed BA's example and changed the website, to route pax into accepting a credit voucher which then bars them from claiming a cash refund. On ba.com there is no longer any option to cancel and refund on the website. It's cancel and voucher only via the website, or call up for a cash refund. Just checking that AA has not made a similar change?

CM10014

Similar situation to others but can't find an exact answer. Have an AA booking on BA metal BOS-LHR-PSA in June. BA cancelled the LHR-PSA leg late last week but AA still shows that flight as confirmed and operating (and I'm sure the BOS-LHR schedule for June is about to get pruned from 4 flights/day in the next few days). I was in touch with AA Twitter and they said to wait until flight is cancelled on their end so refund application is not delayed. Question for the thread is how long after BA cancels should it show up in my PNR? This was cash paid for four P tickets and would love to get refund sooner rather than later...

og

Thanks to fellow FTers on this Forum for advice on getting a refund on flights as opposed to the (airline preferred) credit. Once I used the “prefund” link posted a few weeks ago and followed instructions, everything went smoothly.

wolf539

Update: Twitter DM proved to be the best route for me. Refund processed yesterday after 31 days. Waiting for it to hit my CC account.