View from the Wing has sussed out an irritating change to American Airlines’ refund policy that appears to have been quietly implemented overnight.
By law, US carriers are required to give customers a full refund if they cancel their ticket within 24 hours of booking. However, that law only applies to flights that are 7 days (168 hours) pre-departure.
Previously, American’s policy was more generous, and any non-refundable ticket booked more than 2 days before departure had the 24-hour “cooling off” period to change your mind and get a full refund. Now, American is following United’s lead and moving the window out to 7 days, the maximum that’s allowed by law.
It’s not as though the sky has fallen, since you’d still be eligible for a travel credit, but it does create an obstacle for folks making tentative bookings for the upcoming weekend, or even the end of the week. As a comparison, both Delta and Alaska only require that the ticket be booked 24 hours before departure to be eligible for a cash refund. Book first, ask questions later will be more difficult with AA.
As Gary notes, this makes miles even more appealing for close-in bookings. If you have to cancel an award ticket, you’ll get the miles back…a much better situation than ending up with hundreds of dollars in expiring AA funds.
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There’s been a rash of people buying refundable tickets, stalking celebrities and harassing them at the gate getting off planes. I think the companies should be looking for these bad actors and either banning them outright, or there should be some kind of FAA/TSA prosecution of this. Seems like a heavy overcorrection with profit margin implications for the airlines.
Of course, one could book through an online travel agency and still have the 24 hour cancelation window.
Good point, I had not thought of that. Which OTAs allow for 24 canceliton less than 7 days out?
I believe all.
Hard disagree with your characterization of United.
The work-around is to just use points/miles, because you can cancel for an instant refund up to the departure time, basically.
Ironically, this is one aspect of US regulations are actually better than in Europe/Canada. Even though EU261 has excellent protections and compensation for delayed/cancelled flights under the airlines’ control, it does not mandate a 24-hour rule; many airlines include it, regardless, but it’s not actually required. So, see, no where is perfect.
Award ticket refunds of taxes/fees are cash refunds, unless that changed too. AFAIK only JetBlue has the unfriendly (and likely illegal) policy.
Yeah, B6 is upsetting on that. Having a $5.60 expiring travel credit is not cool.