AMEX Points AA Res cancellation
 

If I book an AA flight through the Amex travel portal and use pay with points, what happens if I want to cancel my flight? Can I cancel on the AA website? Will I get an AA trip credit? For what value?

If you pay with points ($.01/point), Amex is buying you a ticket. It will earn miles etc. You have to work through Amex travel for everything-cancelation etc. They are terrible. Plus, thats a terrible use of points. Can you transfer them to BA Avios and book an AA award ticket?

There doesn't seem to be availability. Booking ORF-AXA (5/18 - 5/22).

Then go ahead and do it. If flights go well, no issues. Amex travel is a pita for IRROPS or changes you may need.

So there is no way to cancel via AA then and just take the trip credit?

You'll get a trip credit with AA, but you have to cancel via Amex-they are the travel agent.

If you have a Business Gold or Business Platinum, you can get 1.33 or 1.5 cpm, and possibly even more if you find an Amex discounted fare.

You can cancel with Amex Travel easily online. Just log into Anextravel and it should appear under the tab heading "My Trips".

You will see the credit available in your AA app under Waller in the Flight Credit section. You can contact AA and have this credit applied towards future travel, but it will cost you $50 to have AA take over the ticket and work with you. But, you can contact Amex Travel easily for free and they can apply the credit towards your new booking.

Does AA still take over the ticket for free for EXPs?

I've never been able to unlock EXPert mode within the AA program so I'm not sure. As a Plat I know that I was quoted $50 per ticket to have AA take over the ticket.

I always used my annual Amex Airline credit to purchase 500 mile stickers. I wonder with the stickers no longer being implemented, if the $50 fee from AA may trigger the credit and be useful for some people.

I quoted this and highlighted the word "easily." This is technically true, you can contact them easily, you can call them and you can talk to a person, usually fairly quickly. (I have an Amex Plat so my experience may not be universal.) However you will find the total process of applying the credit anything but easy. I would estimate I've spent at least 20, probably more like 30-40 hours total to untangle a number of credits with Amex Travel. Also, in theory Amex has a $59 fee to handle the ticket but they appear to still be waiving it. AA does indeed quote a $50 fee to take over a ticket but they have waived it for me, I think will do so for all EXP's, and maybe for others if you ask.

Say you buy a $100 ticket with points. Amex will immediately charge your card $100, remove 10,000 points from your MR account, and credit your card $100. If you are eligible for a points rebate, you will get it a few weeks later. None of this is affected if you later cancel the ticket.

As someone who buys a lot of tickets from Amex (and as I've mentioned in other threads) you should buy from Amex only if (a) you are virtually certain you are going to take the trip and/or (b) you get a really good discount. I recently booked a trip that would cost $1170 on AA for three different dates on Amex, for prices of $660, $730, and $830. So for this kind of savings it's worth it to deal with the hassle if I do have to cancel.

YMMV I guess applies here. My experience was fairly simple after cancelling. One call took care of the rebooking. Changed dates and cities with the new booking and the CSR was apply to apply the credit to the new booking.

I absolutely agree with only booking via Amex Travel when there is a savings vs booking directly. It only complicates things otherwise in the event or trip changes after booking.