Old Mar 28, 2020, 8:55 am
FlyerTalk Forums Expert How-Tos and Guides
Last edit by: seawolf
If your flight have been cancelled*** (you should also be able to refund on schedule changes of >120* minutes (241 minutes for tickets purchased on or after 8 Apr 2020), nonstop to connection or connection reduced to less than minimum connection time) and you want to refund, no need to call AA, just do the following:
1. Take screenshot/email of new rebooked flights/or no rebooked flights as evidence of change.
2. Note down ticket number in original email if print receipt option is not available.

3. Cancel reservation
4. Submit refund request online.
5. Go back to page after a 3-4 days to check refund status.

*NOTE: site for refunds is https://prefunds.aa.com/refunds/

*NOTE AA has changed the change time from 121 to 241 minutes for tickets purchased on or after April 8, 2020.

***Airline defines cancelled as IRROPS that occur day or a couple of days prior to departure.

Another way is to reach out to the Twitter team at @AmericanAir.

April 3, 2020: The US DOT posted today an enforcement notice regarding refunds by carriers:
https://www.transportation.gov/airconsumer/latest-news
Enforcement Notice Regarding Refunds by Carriers Given the Unprecedented Impact of the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency on Air Travel - The U.S. Department of Transportations Office of Aviation Enforcement and Proceedings, a unit within the Office of the General Counsel, is issuing this notice to remind the traveling public and U.S. and foreign carriers that passengers should be refunded promptly when their scheduled flights are cancelled or significantly delayed. Although the COVID-19 public health emergency has had an unprecedented impact on air travel, the airlines obligation to refund passengers for cancelled or significantly delayed flights remains unchanged.











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Requesting refund for a canceled flight

Old May 14, 2020, 10:13 am
  #271  
 
Join Date: Mar 2010
Location: PHL
Programs: AA Executive Platinum; Hilton Diamond
Posts: 2,660
Originally Posted by timc01
Exactly the same for me - although the two SWU's haven't appeared back in my account.
May I ask - did you call in to cancel that one and did you request that the SWUs be redeposited? I have another flight to request a refund BUD-PHL (flight was cancelled) that has 2 SWUs attached. Thanks.
apeortdz is offline  
Old May 27, 2020, 11:26 am
  #272  
 
Join Date: Apr 2020
Posts: 4
Another data point: Refund for four PE BOS-LHR-PSA tickets posted to my credit card today. Made original request with CSR on May 4 because BA cancelled LHR-PSA. May 13 AA emailed me "We're sorry your travel plans changed but your trip is non-refundable." Reached out to AA on Twitter, in a couple of hours they responded that refund was now approved and my request should post in 7-10 days. May 21, status of refund was changed to approved and refund came through today.

AA CSR and Twitter team excellent. Thanks to all contributions to this thread and Wiki!
CM10014 is offline  
Old May 28, 2020, 7:25 am
  #273  
 
Join Date: Apr 2020
Posts: 8
how do you contact them on twitter?
sal8877 is offline  
Old May 28, 2020, 8:15 am
  #274  
 
Join Date: Jul 2015
Posts: 4
How would this refund request work?

So I was wondering if anyone knew how this would work since I can't find this scenario on any blogs, etc. My father in law had a $1000 travel voucher which he couldn't use so he gifted it to us. We decided on a nonstop PHL-CDG flight for September (booked 2/28/20) and the flights are in our names of course. Since then, AA has added a JFK connection to both departure and returning. From what I understand, doing that made us eligible for a "refund". Since it was originally booked with a credit, I am aware we wouldn't get any cash or anything. But I was wondering the logistics/best way to go about changing this since it seems unlikely we will be able to go to Paris in September. If we went the refund route, would we just get a new voucher with a 1 year expiration date for the $1000? Would it be in the form of 2 $500 vouchers since that was the cost of each flight, and one voucher would be in my name and one in my wifes name? Or would the voucher be reissued to my father in law since it was paid for with a voucher in his name? He still would let us use it again I'm sure, so we aren't trying to keep it from him, but it would be much more convenient if we didn't need him to rebook.

Since we aren't able to get an actual refund, does it even make sense to go the refund route? Should we just cancel the trip and rebook for travel by 12/31/2021 per the current policy for all trips through September? We would still like to go to Paris at some point I think. Do we gain/lose any flexibility though by going one option vs the other? This is a dumb question, but when AA says you can change your flight once for travel by 12/31/2021, does that mean you can only change the date of travel, or can you change your itinerary completely with a new destination, etc? Basically, does cancelling your flight under this policy essentially just give you a credit to use toward any future flight up until 12/31/2021? Sorry for all the questions but it's so hard figuring some basic things like this for me.
doug4523 is offline  
Old May 28, 2020, 8:16 am
  #275  
 
Join Date: Oct 2006
Location: Long Beach, CA
Programs: AA PLTPRO, HH Diamond, IHG Plat, Marriott Plat, Hyatt Globalist
Posts: 3,557
Just send them a direct message to @AmericanAir - some Twitter accounts won't read/accept/allow if you aren't already following them (not sure if that's the case with AA) but it's a good idea to follow @AmericanAir before you send them the direct message. You can tweet them first, but because they'll need your name/PNR, you'll end up having to using direct messaging
OskiBear is offline  
Old May 28, 2020, 8:18 am
  #276  
 
Join Date: Apr 2020
Posts: 8
i thought that if ticket is not used then it will be automatically refunded after the year, yet not sure about what method it gets credited back
sal8877 is offline  
Old May 30, 2020, 12:17 am
  #277  
 
Join Date: Oct 2015
Location: Vale of Glamorgan
Programs: BAEC Gold
Posts: 2,963
Originally Posted by apeortdz
Data point. Refund requested 05May. Processed 14May. Took 9 days.
9 days for me, too: refund requested on 20 May, approved 29 May. I was expecting a much longer wait.
Misco60 is offline  
Old May 30, 2020, 10:29 am
  #278  
 
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Washington, DC
Programs: AA Executive Platinum/Million Miler, Marriott Titanium Elite-Lifetime, Hilton Gold
Posts: 3,152
Originally Posted by doug4523
So I was wondering if anyone knew how this would work since I can't find this scenario on any blogs, etc. My father in law had a $1000 travel voucher which he couldn't use so he gifted it to us. We decided on a nonstop PHL-CDG flight for September (booked 2/28/20) and the flights are in our names of course. Since then, AA has added a JFK connection to both departure and returning. From what I understand, doing that made us eligible for a "refund". Since it was originally booked with a credit, I am aware we wouldn't get any cash or anything. But I was wondering the logistics/best way to go about changing this since it seems unlikely we will be able to go to Paris in September. If we went the refund route, would we just get a new voucher with a 1 year expiration date for the $1000? Would it be in the form of 2 $500 vouchers since that was the cost of each flight, and one voucher would be in my name and one in my wifes name? Or would the voucher be reissued to my father in law since it was paid for with a voucher in his name? He still would let us use it again I'm sure, so we aren't trying to keep it from him, but it would be much more convenient if we didn't need him to rebook.
If I'm understanding the situation correctly, you will have two unused tickets in the same names as those on the tickets now. No vouchers are needed. Those unused tickets must be used by 12/31/2021 (used to be within one year of issue date) with no change fee; the unused tickets can be applied to any new ticket originating from the US. I don't know how a "refund" would happen in this situation, but I'm not sure it's worth asking given you both want to use the tickets later on.
USFlyerUS is online now  
Old Jun 1, 2020, 6:43 pm
  #279  
 
Join Date: Nov 2005
Posts: 60
Originally Posted by PHL_Intl.
Does anyone have an experience with refunds for a canceled flight if the original fare was purchased with a mix of CC and vouchers? The refunds page will only show the amount which was charged on the CC but I would want the whole value back and wouldn't even mind a new voucher to be issued. Thx
Update: CC portion has been refunded back to the card and a voucher has been reissued with a new 1 year validity.
PHL_Intl. is offline  
Old Jun 11, 2020, 5:55 am
  #280  
 
Join Date: Mar 2017
Location: AMS
Programs: BAEC Silver, Flying Blue Gold, TK M&S Nobody
Posts: 2,413
Requested a refund on May 29th for a July trip that is all up the wazoo [no longer starts or ends where it was ticketed!] - got the "your trip is non-refundable" email on Sunday but prefunds status just shows "we emailed you on the 29th" so I assume still in the queue. Will calling/twitter DM speed up the processing, or is it just a case of waiting...?
etiene is online now  
Old Jun 11, 2020, 4:01 pm
  #281  
 
Join Date: Jun 2014
Location: TPA
Programs: BA Silver; Hilton Diamond; IHG Diamond; Marriott Gold
Posts: 2,806
I submitted 2 refund requests May 9. Status is still "we emailed you on May 9", and the only email is the initial receipt of request. Time to DM, I guess.

ETA: I thought I posted a follow-up to this. DM response was that they had emailed the evoucher in a timely manner (I had in fact missed it). And they pointed me to a (less-logical) location to check status which did confirm refund approved.

Last edited by SpammersAreScum; Jul 30, 2020 at 10:20 pm Reason: update
SpammersAreScum is offline  
Old Jul 29, 2020, 7:49 am
  #282  
 
Join Date: Dec 2014
Posts: 9
Requested refund of award ticket on July 20. Miles posted back into account within an hour, but 9 days later still waiting for refund of taxes and fees (around $450) to my credit card.
fujiters is offline  
Old Jul 30, 2020, 9:25 am
  #283  
 
Join Date: Jul 2001
Programs: AA EP
Posts: 2,203
AA states 7 business days. And dont count the day you submit the request. Will most likely process on the 7th business day.

Originally Posted by fujiters
Requested refund of award ticket on July 20. Miles posted back into account within an hour, but 9 days later still waiting for refund of taxes and fees (around $450) to my credit card.
AAExecPlatFlier is offline  
Old Aug 1, 2020, 2:11 am
  #284  
 
Join Date: Dec 2014
Posts: 9
Update: refund posted on 31 July.
fujiters is offline  
Old Aug 5, 2020, 9:54 am
  #285  
 
Join Date: Mar 2010
Location: PHL
Programs: AA Executive Platinum; Hilton Diamond
Posts: 2,660
Another data point:
Refund requested - 27Jul
Refund approved (email received) - 05Aug
9 days.
apeortdz is offline  

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