DOT will not do anything and neither will OP get a refund of the additional funds used for the ticket. It will now be a trip credit for the total amount. AA’s contention is that it is a rebooking or more importantly an “exchange of ticket” and not a new booking. I really had hoped that DOT would force AA to be transparent since that was part of my complaint about it back in March but yet here we are.

I'm not sure that's what they're doing. Exchanging a ticket with an A/C to me would only result in a new trip credit if the itinerary was cancelled a second time. I've never expected a refund of the A/C when cancelling within 24 hours a ticket on which I exchanged a prior ticket.

I guess I don't understand why one wouldn't just hold this itinerary for 24 hours before exchanging a prior ticket, which AA allows per DOT regulations.

AA does not present this as "exchanging a ticket with an add collect". If you look at the website experience, it's quite the opposite. You select whatever flights you want, AA shows you a price, and then you apply a travel credit to that price. That's the opposite of "you are changing this old flight and we are charging you a little bit extra for it." In fact, AA allows you to apply multiple credits to the same flight--there's no way to reconcile the idea of apply multiple previous tickets to a new one with the notion that all you're doing is changing the old ticket to the new one. No reasonable person would look at the way that AA presents the ticketing flow and think it's anything other than buying a new ticket and applying some existing credit to it. If AA wants to exclude this from the 24 hour refund policy advertised on their website, they should do it very clearly. In fact, they don't do so at all--even if you look at the terms and conditions of using a travel credit there's no mention of the fact that the 24 hour refund would no longer apply.

just wanted to add that you also get a new PNR.

I disagree. Adding a trip credit in the form of a previously used ticket and having to pay an add/collect is exactly this. I did this just last week. I cancelled an existing PNR, rebooked 15 min later applying the previously issued ticket, and paid an A/C. At no point in the process did I think I'd get a refund of the A/C if I cancelled within 24 hours. If I had held the ticket for several weeks or months, I'd still have thought the same.

I do concede AA should make this more explicit by saying that, if you want to apply a trip credit, that you should instead hold the reservation for 24 hours if you think you might cancel.

Here's another way to look at it: Back when we had change fees, would you have expected the $200 change fee to also be refunded if cancelled within 24 hours? To my knowledge, it never would have been, on any carrier.

I think we are just looking to get the trip credit portion refunded as trip credit and the cash portion as cash. Not looking to get the trip credit refunded as cash. I think AA should make it clear that if trip credit is used any additional cash used to purchase a different ticket will then become trip credit. United allows trip credit to be refunded as trip credit and additional cash as cash if cancelled within 24 hours.

Based on my research, the DOT requires airlines to offer either:

1. 24-hour hold.
or
2. Refunds within 24 hours.

The DOT doesn’t require airlines to offer both.

Since AA offers 1, it doesn’t have to offer 2, so any lack of a refund for 2 would be governed by AA rules, not the DOT’s requirement.

I welcome all corrections if I’m wrong.

AA effectively offers both, even though it doesn't have to. I have never had a problem putting a reservation on hold, ticketing it the next day, then cancelling for a refund the day after that.

However, the 24 hour refund policy gets murky when partially paying with a credit. I think that means no cash refund for any of it. Just a credit for the whole thing that probably expires when the original credit was set to expire. I can't find any T&Cs that address this scenario specifically.

I had a similar issue: I placed several tickets on hold, paid for them in part using flight credits and AA charged much more than the fare that was on hold- and even more than the then-current online price. And for one of the new tickets, the agent definitely didn’t mention the total fare for the new ticket.

I checked my receipts both are labeled “exchange” and “ticket change”. Even though the new ticket has a new PNR and new ticket number.

I researched the CFR provisions and DOT guidance on point and do not see a basis for this.

I suggest a well-researched and well supported letter to the DOT, not just an online submission.

The DOT has penalized AA for refund violations (the documentation is on the DOT website), and the DOT states that it acted based on consumer complaints. Further, one guy submitted his own request for rulemaking and even though the DOT (under Bush II) declined to, it did consider it: https://www.transportation.gov/airconsumer/eo-2003-3-11

If anyone is interested in working on this together, please let me know.

You might not have thought that, but what part of the experience was different in any way from booking a new ticket with, e.g., a gift card instead of a trip credit? How would someone that doesn't understand the underlying ticketing mechanics come to understand that they are somehow waiving the right to a 24 hour refund? As you yourself acknowledge, it's not called out in any way on the website.

They don't have to offer both, but once they do the offer is binding, otherwise it would be an obvious bait and switch. (Which is actually the case here.) There's no exception to using a trip credit in any of the language around the 24 hour refund on their website.

Correct. Flight credit is simply portion of prior ticket which has not been used as evident by the ticket number remains unchanged when telling agent you have a flight credit.

I don't disagree with your point, but it takes someone who knows a decent amount about how this works or cares enough to find out to be able to understand that.

There is no one in my family or friend group that this would be obvious to. And I'm confident that this statement applies to the vast majority of non airline and aviation geeks.

Credits are like store credit to most people. Must be used at the store, cannot be exchanged for cash and thats about it.

As evidence that this theory is incorrect, you can apply up to eight flight credits to a single flight so obviously this is not consistently true.

When I’ve placed reservations on hold and then called AA to pay for them with flight credits-and been charged more than the held fare was- the tickets that are issued have new ticket numbers, different than the cancelled ticket numbers.

With store credit, this is a situation where the store is choosing to offer credit for some reason other than one where there is an entitlement to a refund. With store credit, the store can choose to impose restrictions on the use of credit - e.g. it could refuse a voluntary return of an item purchased on credit where it would accept that return when purchased with money

It seems from one of the replies above that this issue has previously been referred to DOT and it has sided with the airline - maybe the OP here will have a differemt response

None of the enforcement actions on the DOT website indicate this but perhaps it just hasn’t been published.

I was going by the comment in post 41

Usually the restrictions are stated at stores and this is where it is muddy with AA. I don’t think what AA is doing is wrong, I’m just saying they should be more transparent about it and that was the main complaint which DOT still has not done anything about. I think for most people they would think that they would get the refund of cash as cash and trip credit as trip credit. United does it that way. I actually did this with United prior to doing this with AA but each airline has their own policy which should be made clear.

DOT does say: “If our review of your complaint and the response from the company discloses a potential violation of our rules, we may pursue enforcement action. Generally, we pursue enforcement action on the basis of a number of complaints which may indicate a pattern or practice of violating our rules”

I agree that AA isn’t clear but should be. Just what does “hold” mean if AA doesn’t honor the fare that was placed on hold?

I’m not making a statement on whether whether a 24 hour change should be allowed or not. I’m merely stating an AA flight credit is aka an unused ticket.

That is the way it works. You applied/exchange the prior ticket (aka flight credit) and and get a new ticket number as a result of the exhange.

There is nothing to theorize about as it is a fact. As stated earlier in this message, a flight credit is simply an unused ticket. You can use multiple unused tickets for an exchange to a new ticket. The new ticket (eg the result of exchanging flight credit) has a different number. This has been how it worked even during paper ticket days.

Again I’m not making a comment on whether the 24 hour rule applies or not. I’m simply answering prior post that a flight credit is AA’s aka for unused ticket/coupons.

I'm not making that statement above either. What I am pointing out is that what you said may be the mechanism that AA's system uses, but that aspect is not mentioned, clarified or stated anywhere. Also, if you use multiple credits.. which unused ticket is it?

Agreed, and AA lets people put tickets on hold and pay for them (during the 24-hour hold period) with flight credits and doesn’t honor the fare that was placed on hold.

Is that compliant with DOT requirements- whether having either a 24-hour hold or refund period, or avoiding deceptive or unclear practices?

My one concern with raising this to the DOT is that AA will honor 24-hour holds and refunds but then re-impose $200 change fees.

They can try that if they want, but since every other domestic airline offers free changes that seems like it would be a huge competitive disadvantage.

True but other airlines could also re-impose change fees.

If you call AA and tell them you have 3 flight credits to use (assuming the first two provided does not already exceed the new itinerary amount), any excess amount (from the 3rd) gets kicks out as trip credit. All (prior) flight credit/coupons used will change from an OPEN status to EXCHANGED status. That's the mechanics of it.

Whether this should be subject to 24 hour DOT requirement or needs to be "mentioned, clarified or stated anywhere" on AA website is unrelated as I was simply answering the following post:

There's a distinction between trip credit (can use up to 8) with flight credit (can only use 2 online, but the website says you can call in to use more).

I paid for a $79 Basic Economy ticket - $40 on a trip credit and $39 on a credit card. If I cancel my flight within 24 hours, do I get a refund of the $39 and my $40 trip credit returned? Do I lose the $39 I paid on the credit card and get a $79 trip credit? Do I lose the $40 trip credit and get a $79 refund?

It'd seem from reading this thread that I'd lose the $39 since AA would refuse to refund the cash portion since I partially paid with a trip credit?

that is my understanding. You'd get $79 as a trip credit.

Curious if theyve changed that policy. Hopefully it has, since "original form of payment" is not entirely a credit.

I received the $40 back as a trip credit and they refunded the $39.

So they refunded the money you paid back to your credit card? How long did it take for them ti respond? I am in the same situation.