Cheap refundable fares
Apr 30, 2021, 7:16 am
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Apr 2011
Programs: Marriott Ambassador, AA ExecPlat, Amtrak Select Exec, former WN apologist
Posts: 1,426
Cheap refundable fares
Lately I have been noticing a lot of super-cheap "upgrades" to a refundable fare, e.g. "add $12 to make it refundable". This seems pretty appealing if your plans are anything but etched in stone. Is this as simple as it sounds, I can just cancel whenever I want and get a full refund? Or is there some catch or other consideration I should be thinking of? I know in the past, some "flexible" fares still charged a fee when refunding.
Apr 30, 2021, 7:27 am
#2
Join Date: Sep 2000
Location: DCA/IAD
Programs: AA EXP; 1W Emerald; HHonors Diamond; Marriott Gold; UA dirt
Posts: 7,816
I mean they're basically refundable now. Sure, you get it refunded in the form of a voucher, but the mandatory $200 hit you used to take in order to cancel a ticket is gone for now.
Apr 30, 2021, 10:40 am
#3
Join Date: Dec 1999
Location: NYC/PHX
Programs: IATA, Sabre, AvgeekAgent
Posts: 1,958
There could be, depending on the fare rules. "Refundable" and "Refundable without a penalty" are distinctly different. AA did experiment with some discounted business class fares that were refundable with a material penalty (maybe just before COVID or last summer?), but it tends to be more of a foreign carrier thing where deeply discounted fares can be refunded to the original form of payment, minus a penalty.
Apr 30, 2021, 11:08 am
#4
Join Date: Jun 1999
Location: NYC/LA
Programs: DL Plat, AA Plat Pro, Marriott Titanium, IHG Diamond Amb
Posts: 7,486
Did AA.com stop showing fare rules? I've seen these pop up as well as "Main Cabin Flexible" (though the ones I've seen have been the cheapest available fares-- not an upsell, though some are definitely in the range of what I'd expect lowest available coach fares to be pre-pandemic), but I can't seem to pull up the fare rules anywhere.
Apr 30, 2021, 11:31 am
#5
Join Date: Dec 1999
Location: NYC/PHX
Programs: IATA, Sabre, AvgeekAgent
Posts: 1,958
Apr 30, 2021, 11:50 am
#6
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jul 2003
Posts: 23,051
Did AA.com stop showing fare rules? I've seen these pop up as well as "Main Cabin Flexible" (though the ones I've seen have been the cheapest available fares-- not an upsell, though some are definitely in the range of what I'd expect lowest available coach fares to be pre-pandemic), but I can't seem to pull up the fare rules anywhere.
Last edited by xliioper; Apr 30, 2021 at 12:00 pm
Apr 30, 2021, 12:55 pm
#7
Join Date: Mar 2019
Programs: AA EXP; Hyatt Globalist; Hilton Diamond; Marriott Gold
Posts: 723
I think it’s a safe assumption that the sub-$100 buy ups to “refundable” or “flexible” fares are not actually refundable without a fee/penalty.
Apr 30, 2021, 1:36 pm
#8
Join Date: Dec 1999
Location: NYC/PHX
Programs: IATA, Sabre, AvgeekAgent
Posts: 1,958
I’m usually pretty good at parsing out the meaning from fare rules, but lately the AA fare rules have been all but indecipherable to me due to the layers of nested “if-then” rules relating to COVID changes.
I think it’s a safe assumption that the sub-$100 buy ups to “refundable” or “flexible” fares are not actually refundable without a fee/penalty.
I think it’s a safe assumption that the sub-$100 buy ups to “refundable” or “flexible” fares are not actually refundable without a fee/penalty.
-FULL REFUND WILL BE MADE OF WHOLLY UNUSED
REFUNDABLE FARE TICKETS.
Last edited by NYC Flyer; Apr 30, 2021 at 1:36 pm Reason: sp
May 1, 2021, 8:00 am
#9
Original Poster
Join Date: Apr 2011
Programs: Marriott Ambassador, AA ExecPlat, Amtrak Select Exec, former WN apologist
Posts: 1,426
This is sort of what I was assuming as well. But they distinctly call it "refundable" rather than "flexible". Which one would think is less ambiguous, but airlines certainly like to play games with words and their common meanings. I am not as good at most on this board at deciphering the lines and lines of all-caps run-on-sentence fare rules, so I am naturally suspicious.
May 1, 2021, 10:48 am
#10
Join Date: Dec 1999
Location: NYC/PHX
Programs: IATA, Sabre, AvgeekAgent
Posts: 1,958
This is sort of what I was assuming as well. But they distinctly call it "refundable" rather than "flexible". Which one would think is less ambiguous, but airlines certainly like to play games with words and their common meanings. I am not as good at most on this board at deciphering the lines and lines of all-caps run-on-sentence fare rules, so I am naturally suspicious.
May 1, 2021, 8:06 pm
#11
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jul 2003
Posts: 23,051
I’m usually pretty good at parsing out the meaning from fare rules, but lately the AA fare rules have been all but indecipherable to me due to the layers of nested “if-then” rules relating to COVID changes.
I think it’s a safe assumption that the sub-$100 buy ups to “refundable” or “flexible” fares are not actually refundable without a fee/penalty.
I think it’s a safe assumption that the sub-$100 buy ups to “refundable” or “flexible” fares are not actually refundable without a fee/penalty.
May 3, 2021, 6:55 am
#12
Original Poster
Join Date: Apr 2011
Programs: Marriott Ambassador, AA ExecPlat, Amtrak Select Exec, former WN apologist
Posts: 1,426
Interesting. On the offer for the buyup, they explicitly call it "make it refundable", and the word "flexible" doesn't even appear in the fare rules. I don't even know what distinction they are trying to make between the two terms. Honestly, it seems like they try to make this as confusing as possible hoping we'll all give up.