Not really, It doesn't take them 7 business days to charge the card. They have the ability to make this as instant as a purchase... but don't.

I'm not sure if you're speaking in jest or not, but credit card purchases aren't "instant" even if a pending authorization appears very quickly. The refund process can be lengthy for a similar reason.

Only partly. They could easily push the refund instantly - it would be up to the card provided whether to show that as pending or just wait for it to post.

Seven business days is just a delay tactic on their part.

As indicated previously, this is what is required by US regulation (refund post within 7 business days).

Please point to a US regulation that requires the airline to wait seven business days to process a refund. I'll wait.

No one said they have to wait 7 days for them to refund.

Large organizations especially publicly traded ones also like to have financial controls in place to ensure cash outflows properly follow these controls instead of just pushing refunds out immediately as you suggest.

YOU did.

Me: Seven business days is just a delay tactic on their part.
You: As indicated previously, this is what is required by US regulation.

So, as asked, please point to the regulation that requires waiting seven business days to process a refund.

Please go back to post 15 and I clarified 19 (require as in refund required to be posted within 7 business days) to alleviate confusion.

For the third time, please cite the regulation you assert is in play here.

Regulation Z - 12 CFR 1026.12(e)(1)

Within.

That doesn't require them to wait seven days. My statement stands: They could do this same day. They're just delaying to delay.

What you allege is neither actionable to OP or against the law.

A couple of reactions to this. I'm not just some random person who booked a flight; I have Sapphire status in TWO different OW carriers whose flights were in the itinerary (AS and BA); the flights were to be credited to the BA EC program. Some will scoff at this mid-level status in 2 airlines in the alliance, however what percentage of AA tickets are booked entirely in First Class booked by frequent flyers at this level? This has to represent a small enough part of their flying public to at least merit a yawn or a sigh or something else. So, they screwed over a regular customer of the alliance, if in fact alliances count for anything (which perhaps they do not, I can't speak to that).

Another thing is that I simply don't patronize businesses that treat me like caca; maybe you get away with that once with me, but my mantra is "fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me." So when I get a whiff of a business that treats its customers like crap, I head in the other direction and I never patronize them again. So my assumption was that if this company, AA, was going to treat me like this, who knows what they would do to me on the rest of the itinerary when the time comes for my return? I didn't want to take the risk, better to cut my losses, get my money back, and never fly with these AAholes again.

That may be true (I honestly have no idea if it is possible with AA's systems), but it's completely immaterial. The fact that the refund hadn't credited to the OP's credit card in five days doesn't say a damn thing about whether the refund will eventually be credited, whether or not it could (or even should) have been credited faster. And initiating a chargeback five days after requesting a refund almost certainly did nothing more than make every involved party including the OP's life more difficult. I don't imagine a credit card company authorizing a chargeback when the merchant said they would refund the money within seven days but it hadn't even been seven days yet.

So far the merchant, AA, has said that they are considering refunding $124 and change on a ticket that cost $3804.

Sorry, that just doesn't cut it with me.