Zwiebelbauer

This wasn't my experience with UA. When I cancelled within 24 hours it automatically reissued the flight credit with a new # and refunded the portion I paid via CC back to my CC.

md125

So... I think that whether they are following the letter of the law or not, they are clearly trying to be sneaky about it.

A few months ago, I bought a fully-refundable cash ticket to St. Croix. About a month after booking, I had to change the date by one day, and tried to do so online but kept getting an error. The price of the prior day's fully-refundable flight was identical to what I paid. So I figured I'd just cancel, get my money back, and rebook.

I cancelled. I got a confirmation page that I had gotten a refund in the form of a credit good for a year. My immediate thought was, no big deal, I plan to use that credit today to book a new ticket - and then I realized that I'd be buying a fully refundable ticket refundable back to a credit which they shouldn't even be allowed to sell! It is identical to a non-refundable ticket purchased with the same credit.

I booked the new flight with cash. Then I called to get a proper refund. The person I spoke with said that she could do that with no issues, but would be just as easy to cancel the new ticket and rebook the old one for the new day even though it was cancelled, which she did in about 10 minutes.

Point being that they nearly had me both losing my ability to get a cash refund while still charging me the fully refundable price, apparently by design since both United and Delta allow you to choose the refund back to original form of payment directly on their website.

Dave Noble

That sounds more like an issue with an email from AA than anything else. If it was a refundable ticket, then the refund would go back to original form of payment, so if paid by card, return to the card

RRROOO

I think what the original poster means is this;
A/ he bought a ticket 6 months ago--did not use it
B/he exchanged old ticket to new
C/ 24 hours later , he wanted to cancel NEW ticket keep original balance from original ticket
D/ AA will not allow cancellation of NEW ticket without keeping credit value of NEW ticket.

I can attest this is how AA operates. AA cannot void an exchange 24 hours later. Same day..YES! but 24 hours later...NO.

newaliases

Yes. The one time exception is they will refund my credit card portion back to my credit card and reissue me a flight credit for the amount I paid by flight credit.

newaliases

Sorry, should have been more careful with my word. I mean that the RULE is unfair, but that I am glad they made an exception. Their one-time "exceptional" fix is definitely fair (how it should work), althogh I hate that they made me waste so much time fighting for something that ought to be very obvious and selling it like it is a big favor. It should just be that the credit card should go back to credit card.

Or maybe airlines should just stop with the stupid expiring "flight credit" concept, but probaby sooner money grows from trees than that.

eddiehuang97

I used Trip Credit+CC before and cancelled within 24 hours. Had to submit a manual refund request on the website but eventually I do get my money back onto the credit card and a new Trip Credit. Not sure if the same applies to a Flight Credit

seawolf

UA does not offer holds so they have to offer a refund.

Kacee

Exactly. This seems rather obvious to me. If you want to preserve refundability under the 24 hour rule, don't pay with a nonrefundable form of payment.

BlooJoo

Logical, IMO. Nothing to see here.

ijgordon

Hipplewm

This exact scenario is/was a huge deal breaker for me on AA
I make/cancel an asston of flights <48 hours from flight. I tend to a lot of "Emergency" jobs and the clients go from "Panic" get here asap to a more measured approach get here in a few days as we have to get stuff ready for you to show up anyway etc - or I talk them thru a fix on the phone etc.

I can easily buy non refundable tix on UA <36 hours and generally have an idea if i need to cancel or not last minute, on AA, I have to buy refundable even if I buy at the ticket counter because I may be in the terminal waiting and get a call to not go and go back home (Happened 3 times this year already)

VegasGambler

I don't really get it though. If you fly that much isn't a credit just as good as cash? It's not like you won't use it before it expires in a year.

I used to book and cancel a lot of non-refundable flights (not on AA) and it was never a big deal -- I would just use any credit I had before using cash and nothing ever came close to expiring (at the time I had waived change/cancel fees due to status, obviously now that's not an issue any more for most airlines)

Hipplewm

To me - Yes
To the bean counters trying to figure out which company to bill for what flight and using credit from another flight and not having a credit card recipt to follow the ticket I bought - Deal breaker for them

Before you try and tell me how to get the bean counters to do this or that - I don't care - i live > 1000miles from them and it isn't worth my time. I am treated extremely well by my company and if this is their line in the sand it isn't worth 5 minutes of my time to try and figure it out - I just fly UA or if I fly AA, I buy refundable tix - even if I am buying them at the ticket counter 2 hours before the flight.

Lux Flyer

Which is exactly the scenario the refundable ticket was designed for, not the 24 hour booking policy.

I know on UA you are currently able to exploit the 24 hour flexible booking policy even when it's been ~36 hours and a short time frame before departure. But the official policy on their website states "if you made your purchase one week or more before the flight was scheduled to depart." and "The 24-hour timeframe begins at the time you book and ticket your reservation." Fortunately they only teach their agents to look at the ticketing date and not actual time of ticketing. My understanding though, is they are in the process of replacing their 20+ year old reservation program, and when that finishes, the loophole will be closed as the system will block/not show the refund option when it's outside the flexible booking window as described by their published policy. I'm sure as soon as one airline becomes more strict on enforcing their policy as written, the others will follow suit. So enjoy it while it lasts, but I'm guessing in the near future this loophole isn't going to be a thing anymore.