Unable to book basic economy using flight credit?
 

I called the EXP desk to book two separate flights in basic economy using two separate flight credits that were from flights originally booked in economy. The new flights were unrelated to the original flights (different dates and destinations). I was told that I was “unable to use the flight credits to book basic economy because the original flights had been booked in regular economy” (I don’t recall which fare bucket). It wasn’t going to break the bank (an extra $30/ticket), and each of the flight credits were for more than the cost of the new tickets, but nevertheless this seemed odd to me. Subsequently, I looked up the t&c for using flight credits and saw nothing about having to rebook in the same class as originally booked. Does anyone have any insight into this?

I believe you have to convert the flight credit into a trip credit and then it should be able to be used on a BE fare

Thx for input, but the only way I know to convert flight credit is by using it toward the purchase of another ticket, with any remaining balance getting converted to trip credit. It's not clear to me why I can't use the flight credit to purchase BE directly, which would increase the value of the remaining trip credit. From what I can read in the t&c, it seems the only requirement is that the flight credit be used to purchase another ticket in the name of the original passenger. It doesn't say anything about which fare class.

I had a BE ticket on hold and called the agent to book using a Flight Credit today. The agent tried at length to up-sell me to a Main ticket which I declined, but then once I gave her the Flight Credit number I was told the same, that since the original flight wasn't BE it couldn't be used. I reached out to the AA Twitter team and they confirmed this because "... BE tickets are instant purchase deals and the cabin fare can't be downgraded in the ticketing world". It seems the T&Cs are misleading!

1. Apparently, flight credit can never be used to purchase BE fares. You will not find any language to that effect on any public facing AA webpage. When being told this by an agent on the EXP desk, I was told “it would not matter if I were CK. Same rule applies to everyone.” I’m not so sure about that, but then again, how often would a CK be looking to book a BE fare?

2. The fact that such a policy does not appear in the t&c for using flight credits is highly dubious at best. What are t&c for if not to detail the “terms and conditions” governing the use of flight credits? Seems kind of basic. From what I’ve since read on other threads, it is not uncommon for folks to want to use a flight credit in this way, only to find out after much time and frustration that they can’t. This is not some isolated, one-off incident.

3. AA gets to make the rules. Sure. But what about the responsibility to be transparent about those rules? In my view, big fail there.

4. When I followed up with AA customer service, this was the reply I got: “We sincerely regret any confusion regarding the restrictions associated with your fare. When booking on our website the fare rules are listed at the bottom of the review and pay page. Just click on the detailed fare rules and it pulls up all the rules. I'm sorry for all the problems this may have caused.”

Instead of being “sorry,” just fix it. I don’t agree with the policy, but at least be transparent and upfront about it. How about putting something to this effect in the t&c: “Flight credits cannot be used to purchase basic economy fares.” Seems to me that the addition of these ten words would save a lot of unnecessary irritation.

So what's the workaround? Convert as much of the flight credit into a trip credit as you can by booking cheap fares and canceling them?

Yes, immediately this is all you can do.
Having recently done this, the lowest non-BE fare I have been able to find is $75, so that is basically the current "fee" to unlock and/or extend value from a flight credit

So if the value of my flight credit is $70 there's literally nothing I can do right? I have to book it on a main fare?

That’s right, at least with the cost of the cheapest airfare right now.

I noticed that there are some routes (example LAX-LAS) that do not have basic economy fares at all (their cheapest is main). Can you check me on that or am I going crazy?

There are definitely some routes without BE.

What are some notable ones? This is probably the only way I'll be able to use up my flight credit since I almost exclusively fly Basic Economy.

Flight credits generally seem to be a scam.

I’ve made many reservations, put them on hold, tried to use a flight credit to pay for them, discovered that they can’t be redeemed online, had to call AA to use them to pay for reservations on hold, and then AA charges a much higher price when I try to use them.

It's not just AA as I've just had a similar experience with AC flight credits.

I just wasted an hour trying to use a flight credit to book a basic economy ticket, with American Airlines agents telling me it was impossible. I should have read this post earlier.

The solution is to use the flight credit to book a cheap main cabin ticket. Any remaining flight credit, if any, will automatically be converted to trip credit. After that, you can cancel the main cabin ticket and the value of it will be converted to trip credit. Finally, use all the trip credit to book your basic economy flights.