Requesting refund for a canceled flight
 

I have (had) an AA flight coming up on April 4, Philadelphia to Eagle. It appears that the flight has been cancelled as it is no longer in my itinerary, not do I see the flight on AA (flight number 1050, but it seems that all AA flights to EGE are cancelled)..

When I try to request a refund online (through the AA refund system), it says I am ineligible and must cancel the reservation first. I know this will just create a credit voucher for me.

Any insight or suggestions on getting a refund on this cancelled flight? Is it just a matter of time before an automatic refund kicks in? (I think the flights were cancelled in the past 48 hours).

Just call. A week ago Saturday with the announcement that AA was suspending most flights to EU countries through May 6th, I checked my April and May flights and saw that they were still listed but that they HAD to be cancelled. And there were no other rebooking options available. I phoned and the AAgent confirmed the cancellations and told me to cancel and then go to the online refund request route. I then rescheduled (and paid) for three new trips with the agent (no charge BTW) and three days later my credit card was refunded in full for the cancelled trips. If you’re uncertain, phone first and ask about your flights and situation. BTW, my flights were all non refundable fares.

At this point, I dont anyone can say with any certainly what and when AA will be back to some sort of normal operations.
I have a few flights booked in April on AA, all international, my app shows the flights still operating, I some how doubt it.
Not too worried at this point.. I think AA will do us all, what is right, and I think at this point.. the agents probably really dont know what the full policy will be on refunds/reticketing etc

You should be able to cancel and then request a refund. It is two actions. But, probably easiest to call and do both in a call. There won't a problem with a refund when the flight is cancelled.

Can we get refunds on a ticket we cancel (to get full value credit), but then later find out the flight itself has been canceled/removed from the schedule? I'm kicking myself for canceling April flights for the flight credit when it's highly likely they'll be outright canceled and I could have gotten a refund.

No. Unless I'm rescheduling an itinerary immediately, I always wait to cancel non-refundable tickets until about 60 min before departure of the first flight.

In a word, no. You may always ask, but given the cash crunch, I see little likelihood that AA -- or any carrier -- will spend cash it is not required to and, in this case, it does not have to.

For the broader audience, if you are considering cancelling and your flight is still operating, wait until the last minute to cancel. If the flight is cancelled or significantly changed as most flight are or will be, you are entitled to a refund.

Was flying an international on Friday with cancellations and crazy changes, some shown online, others not. Called to cxl and request refund. Took about one minute. Fastest call I've ever had with an airline for anything. (Would have waited until under 72 hours, but also had to cxl award booking for my daughter scheduled for Tuesday. Fortunately, was able to move her to a domestic destination a few days ago.)

Agree should call. FWIW, I did this about a week ago on flights to Rome that were canceled. The agent seemed to believe that refunds were not available. He put me on hold for about 3-4 minutes and told me he got the refunds approved. I'm not sure he knew what he was doing--refunds for a canceled flight should be automatic, no approval needed. Refund has yet to show up, I may need to call back. He did correctly process the redeposit of miles for a similar situation involving different tickets, and the refund of taxes/fees came quickly.

Same situation here. Itinerary in early April was AUS-PHL-DUB and then LHR-AUS. As of this morning only AUS-PHL remained. I went through the online refund request after first cancelling what was left of the reservation. It took the refund request but it said it required manual review. I was able to specify flight cancellation as the reason in the request. We'll see what happens.

Messages popped up during the process which were apparently meant to discourage you from requesting a refund and to have you hold on to the credit for a future rebooking. Can't say that I blame them.

This is a key point. I was told by the phone AAgent to specify which flight was canceled on the online refund request form to “speed up the [refund] process. It worked.

I'm due to fly JFK-SJO-JFK in May. Just received an email from AA, and it appears the outbound is cancelled but the inbound operates. Can I refund the whole itinerary? Surely they can't expect me to teleport to SJO and then fly AA home?

Another question: would a OWE (AY Plat)be allowed to call the EXP line, or should I just call the regular number? As this is in May, I suppose there's no hurry.

1. Yes, if any segment is cancelled, you may cancel the entire ticket for a full refund.
2. You may call any line you wish, but without an AA #, you will be auto-routed to the general number (same thing in reverse, as an EXP, you may call the general number and you will be routed to the EXP line).
3. Wait. You will spend a lot less time waiting if you wait until a couple of days before your flight. Right now it is a madhouse.

OP here. I called AA and they processed the cancellation and refund. Since the reservation I held still shows as valid in the AA system, the agent had to look up the flight to see it was cancelled.

I was offered to fly on another airline, declined that. I was offered 120% of the ticket value, and politely declined that. I asked for a refund and it was processed. My reservation still says I have the full value of the ticket. But the refund site states a refund is pending review - so now it's just a wait for processing.

Many/most? airlines are taking a go-slow approach to refunds to preserve cash...not great, but I can see both sides of the argument.