formeraa

Just asking FTers experience about getting a credit when the fare drops on your itinerary.

S80

You can call, but I usually just cancel and rebook. Just don't use an automated service, as that's now against the TOS.

Stripe

Agree about the cancel and rebook, but what is an "automated service"?

lowfareair

As long as you don't have a change fee (e.g. not basic economy and ticket doesn't originate in the few regions that have change fees), you can cancel and rebook.

FLL88

I cancel and rebook if I become aware of a fare drop

GNRMatt

You can also just call in and request a Trip Credit for the price difference. No need to cancel anything.

ijgordon

Just be careful. The trip credit you get can only be used on NEW bookings. So if, for example you change your flight to a less expensive one or the price goes down by $200, and then later you change again and the price goes up by $200 you will have to fund that with NEW money, you can’t use that trip credit. It’s disingenuous and dishonest IMHO, and if this had happened to me on a personal ticket (vs a corporate travel agent issued work trip) I’d be making stronger waves.

I think there are (sketchy) workarounds but still…

dc10forlife

If you take the credit (after a price drop) and need to change again, simply cancel the ticket. You will get an additional credit. Then book the new flights you want and apply both credits.

PHL

<response to off-topic post removed by moderator>

As to OP question - yes, you can get a trip credit for the fare difference by simply calling in and just giving them the PNR # and telling them you saw a fare drop and wish for a trip credit for the price difference. I've done it multiple times on the same trip after several price drops. It's possible that fare could have gone back up by the time you call. That risk, though relatively small if done quickly, applies to canceling old booking and rebooking new one.

njvandy

I've been able to "change" my flight on the app to the exact same flight and pocket the trip credit for the difference, no call needed.

ijgordon

I'm not so sure that works. Certainly the corporate travel agent couldn't figure this out (although admittedly they're not the best).
AA.com's page on travel credits does explicitly say that "You may not combine Trip Credit with the value of an existing ticket to pay for a new ticket." but it's a little confusing as to what exactly Trip Credit vs. Flight Credit is.

JY1024

OK, so maybe I'm not going crazy...I was gonna say that I feel like I've done what you mentioned: go into the PNR, click on "change," look through the options listed for your existing itinerary. If it's the same price as you bought it, it will show "$0" to change to it. But if the price has gone down, it'll show a "-$" amount. Just make the "change" and trip credit will be added to your wallet.

formeraa

Thank you everyone. My reservation was not able to be changed online. So, I called in and the agent very quickly was able to exchange the ticket and issue the trip credit.

formeraa

This is nice to know!

DSM Flyer

The whole "trip credit" vs "flight credit" often confuses me... I booked and paid for a trip for myself and a coworker in a couple of weeks. We may want to push the trip back a couple weeks, and at this time the fares for the same trip a couple weeks later look to be about $200 less per person. If I "change trip" and the new trip is $200 less each, will I get a "trip credit" for the difference in both of our tickets, which will all ($400) be usable by me for future travel? Or will we each get a "flight credit" usable only by the ticketed individual in the future - $200 for me, $200 for him? He doesn't fly AA very often so it would be much better if I could the entire credit in the future. Pretty sure if we just cancelled we would get "flight credits" usable only by the ticketed individual, but wasn't sure how that worked with a change that happens to be a lower fare.