cmtlatitudes

Can anyone explain the criteria AA uses to determine if a cancellation becomes a Flight Credit or a Trip Credit ????

Originally, I had two Flight credits:
#1. DCA - KOA (purchased pre-covid; extended out to March 2022 with the blanket extension AA provided last year)
#2. PLS - DCA (a return ticket purchased and cancelled in May 2021, because I took a United non-stop)

When AA announced "Trip Credits" last month, #2 above became a "Trip Credit", with an additional 3 months added to the expiration date. #1 Stayed a Flight Credit. OK, no problem, Trip Credits are actually better. I assumed #1 stayed a Flight Credit because it was purchased pre-covid and was in the blanket extension AA gave last year.

This month I purchased and cancelled Trip #3:
#3. DCA-PLS, Aug 2021.

Inexplicitly, AA credited #3 as a Flight Credit. I had guessed it would be credited as a Trip Credit, as I thought that's what AA was going to. (??) Part of the reason I purchased this while knowing there was a high probability the date or destination would shift, was thinking it would be easily combined as a credit for other stuff coming up.

Fortunately it's not really a huge deal with the trips I'm hoping to make this year. Still, not as convenient and simple as a Trip Credit. But going forward, ideally I'd like to know what my refund mechanism will be, even before I purchase a ticket, but definitely before/during the cancellation process. Now that there are "choices".

The only obvious distinction from my three tickets is the one Flight that didn't originate in the US was refunded as a Trip Credit. But it seems a stretch to assume that is a criteria.

cmtlatitudes

I found the appropriate link from the thread below ---- Mods please feel free to move/consolidate ---- but am still confused.

The only trip that became a Trip Credit, PLS to DCA, originated outside the US. This is contrary to stated policy?

https://www.aa.com/i18n/customer-ser...vel-credit.jsp

rucksack

As reported elsewhere, AA started converting Flight Credit from cancelled travel to Trip Credit. This seems to be more or less a one-time exception to their standard policy in order to make it easier to redeem unused travel credits (but since almost nothing AA does is truly benevolent, I'd guess the end goal here is to divert calls from people trying to redeem flight credits away from AA's overloaded call centers). If you contact AA, I'd guess that they'd be willing to convert your Flight Credit to a Trip Credit.

econ

Expect I still need to call in most times to redeem Trip Credits too.

S80

I had two trips that I cancelled around the same time earlier this year, one turned into a trip credit automatically, the other didn't. Both were domestic US trips as well.

veeRob

Called EP desk tonight and they were unable to do that for me. After a long discussion with the rate desk they said I would have to email customer service.

rucksack

It sounds like you may have talked to someone in Reservations? You may try calling either Customer Service (800-882-8880) or the Executive Liaison desk (888-747-1427). I've found the latter is particularly able to bend rules.

veeRob

It wasn't Reservations, but your post inspired me to poke the bear a few more times. After some crazy back and forth, I finally received a Trip Voucher from all of my Flight Vouchers. Amazing. Got lots of flying to do in the next year. Thanks for the reply, good to know about the liason desk #.

PHL

They could save some time by keeping the trip & flight credit options available after a ticket is put on hold. The options are there on the initial purchase screen for me, but when I go back to pay for it after a hold, even if 10 seconds later, the options are gone and I have to call to apply any credits.

S80

This is the most frustrating part imo - It's just so much easier for me to pick the flights I want (lowest risk of delays/cancellations/getting stuck somewhere when visiting family/friends, etc), but having to put on hold while I confirm plans, then call to use is just a waste of everyone's time.

Maykita

Hi, apologies if this was answered somewhere else and I couldn't find it. I had a flight credit that got extended to March 31 2022. In June 2021 I booked a flight to take place in late March 2022, using that flight credit. Today I learn that American has totally scrambled that reservation to create an unworkable schedule (literally with a connecting flight taking off before prior flight lands, multiple connections all over the country, and arriving a day late). There are no good alternatives either. I am going to have to rebook anew on another airline to be able to do the trip.

My question is whether I will be able to get a refund from American with an expiration date later than March 31 2022? I have been reading about conversions to trip credit with a one year expiration from date of issue, but I can't figure out if that will happen in my situation. I am concerned any credit I get will inherit the earlier expiration date (March 31 2022) and there is no way I can use it by then. Does it matter that I had booked to use it by that date and then they decided to not fly what I booked, or anything halfway close to it, or even anything humanly possible? I have been on hold for a long time trying to find out the answer to this, and am afraid if I just cancel online it will be understood as a voluntary cancellation on my part, when they have actually made my trip impossible on their airline, due to their actions. Thanks for any help!

UPDATE: After an hour on hold, I spoke to an agent who cancelled the flights for me and told me I'd have to request a refund online. Could not tell me what I would get in terms of credits or extensions ("I'm not refunds") and could not connect me to anyone who could tell me, but kept saying not to worry, it would all be fine, and also "what choice do you have? you can't do the flights!" -- which was true, since the flights were literally unflyable by anyone incapable of time travel. So I did the refund request online and indicated it was due to a schedule change, but still have no idea what, if anything, I will get.

KeyHueso

Yes, agreed 100%. AA has made strategic decisions about how their web site is programmed, and some of them seem nonsensical. The way that once you put a ticket on hold you lose the ability to apply promotions and trip credits, and have to call a human being on the telephone, seems like it would be more costly to AA.

tfizzle

My DFW-HKG flight was cancelled. I called the EP desk and asked for a refund, but instead got a flight credit. I click on it and it showed my cancelled trip.

a few questions.

1. What is a flight credit?
2. Why didn't the give me a refund (as AA canceled the route).
3. I had 4 SWU's attached and they have yet to be put back in my wallet.

any advice would be appreciated.

PHL

1. Flight credit is what you get when you voluntarily cancel a flight. It goes into your AA 'wallet' to be used towards a future booking.
2. If AA canceled, the agent should have processed it as a refund. You'd have to call them (again) or email customer service to have this re-processed as a refund back to original payment.
3. They should go back. If it's been more than a week since flight was canceled, you can add this to the list of squawks to discuss with AA when you call/email them.

Focke

They are kind of the same thing, the primary differences being:

1. Flight credit can only be used to book travel for passenger named on the flight credit. Only 1 can be applied per flight and if value exceeds trip cost, remainder gets converted into a Trip Credit.

2. Trip Credit can be used to book travel for anyone and up to 8 can be used per trip.

So if you have a $3000 flight credit and buy a $100 ticket with it, 2900 will be converted and show up as a Trip credit in your wallet.