travel to USA
 

I was going to travel to Missouri in May of this year but in March after I had purchased my tickets from Australia, My Mitral valve partially collapsed and I had to have emergency open heart surgery. I changed to a new flight date of 21 Oct but I am unable to go in Oct. Quntas has already booked me for may of next year but American says I have to travel from the date I bought the Tickets. How can I travel in May without having to buy completly new tickets?

Not sure about AA, but UA has compassion fares, which if you have a documented medical excuse and physician documentation, you can change them without additional fees with the exception of differences in fares.

As I understand the OP's message, the problem is not a change fee but the fact that AA can't / won't waive their rule that the validity of a ticket cannot be extended beyond one year from the date it was purchased.

cheers,

Henry

Try overwhelming AA with medical documentation (the scarier the better). They may come to their senses and relent; they're probably just protecting themselves from people who make small medical events seem huge in order to get around their rules. The people you talk on the phone are most likely not equipped to understand what you went through (and happy that it was successful).