# AA is refusing to give us cash refund



## anne1125 (Dec 31, 2010)

In October we purchased airline tickets for Belize for next June.  The flight has 1 stop.  Recently they changed their schedule so that we had over a 4 hour airport wait for next flight.  My husband quickly decided that Belize was not worth that so we cancelled our plans.  I called AA and they said since they made the schedule change we would be refunded through the same method of payment (paypal).  They did not know how long the refund would take, up to 10 days.  I called twice checking on this refund.  On day 9 we received credit vouchers in the mail.  I called and they said the customer service could not help once the refund is made, only their customer care dept.  However, they don't have a phone number, only an email address or fax number

I emailed them with my info and my reply from them said that they have decided not to give us a cash refund as the schedule change was on 85 minutes and must be 90.  We were never told anything about it needing to be 90 minutes or more.

Has anyone here dealt with them in these matters?  I don't know where else to turn, but we really need our refund instead of vouchers.

Thanks for any help you can give.

Anne


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## LisaRex (Dec 31, 2010)

I'm assuming you bought a non-refundable ticket?  Then I'm afraid that that's what "non-refundable" means.  There are certain hurdles (e.g. a schedule change that gives you less than 30 minutes or greater than 5 hours on a layover -- the rules are different for each airline) that have to be cleared before most airlines will give you a cash refund.  

When you called them, did you say, "I want to cancel my ticket." or did you say, "What are my options given this schedule change?"  If it was the latter, and the CSR indicated that you'd be entitled to a full REFUND, then you may have an appeal.  But if you said the former, or if the CSR said that you'd be issued a credit voucher without incurring cancellation/change fees, then you should plan to use your credit vouchers before they expire. 

Sorry.


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## jlwquilter (Dec 31, 2010)

We recently went thru this with AA as well. Ours was a very small schedule change but we very much wanted to take advatage of it and cancel our tickets totally. My DH called as he's better at this stuff than I am. In summary it took him over an hour on the phone and sticking to his guns that their website, where the tickets were purchased, said nothing about a 90 minute change requirement to get a 'cash' refund (and it didn't - that may be changed by now, I don't know). At first they refused to cancel with any refund and then tried the voucher route. Eventually he got the full 'cash' refund - full price refunded to the credit card used. It took several days to chose up but less than what they said it might.

Since you already have the vouchers in hand I think you are stuck. And I am not at all sure that if we tried to cancel now that we'd be successful. Sometimes it is 'shopping for an answer' and calling back and back and back until you get someone that will do what you want and somethimes it's just not getting off the phone until they give you exactly what you want - they give in first.


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## Talent312 (Dec 31, 2010)

It appears that airlines are wising up to folks using fairly nominal schedule changes to get refunds from non-refundable tickets, and clamping down on the practice.

As for a 4-hour layover... 1) you should allow extra time for an international leg, and * most airports have free WiFi, so one could use a laptop to browse this user-group and the time would go very quickly. *


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## Jim C (Jan 2, 2011)

If I understand the OP correctly, the actual reason for the refund request wasn't the 4 hour layover, but OP's husband decided he didn't want to go to Belize after all.  If that's the case, and they had non-refundable tickets, I think they were lucky to get the vouchers.


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## LisaRex (Jan 2, 2011)

Jim C said:


> If I understand the OP correctly, the actual reason for the refund request wasn't the 4 hour layover, but OP's husband decided he didn't want to go to Belize after all.  If that's the case, and they had non-refundable tickets, I think they were lucky to get the vouchers.



Not to put words in the OPer's mouth, but the way I understand it is that they originally booked a flight to Belize that include an ~2 3/4 hour layover.   AA then changed the flight times so that the layover was ~4 1/4 hours.  Hubby thought that that was too long and wanted to cancel.  

So, yes, they wanted to cancel a non-refundable ticket, but the reason they wanted to cancel was because AA had increased their layover time another  85 minutes.  Unfortunately, AA doesn't issue cash refunds unless the time increased 90 minutes or more, so they issued them a credit instead of a refund.  

Without knowing the specifics of the phone call, and who said what, it's impossible to know who is more at fault for the misunderstanding.


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## cgeidl (Jan 4, 2011)

*Should get refund*

If the vouchers are for anywhere, anytime, this seems fair to me. I only for the inadequate flight according to the travelers who did not make the extra layover IMHO they shouild get cash to go elsewhere.We recnetly received vouchers for future use on Hawaiian Airlines because of a major downward price change and we considered this very fair.


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## jlwquilter (Jan 4, 2011)

If I recall correctly, the AA vouchers are good for 1 year. While that seems good, if you only fly a few times a year (like us), then you could easily run out of time. I don't want to have to fly AA, or any other airline, and pay more, just because I have expiring vouchers. After all, I paid cash for those vouchers - they weren't free.


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## california-bighorn (Jan 4, 2011)

*Change didn't seem that bad*

Since we often book many months out, frequently we have been subjected to schedule / route changes.  Some no big deal, one for the better and a couple that added 4 hour stops and plane / terminal changes.  
I don't think having another hour and half added to the layover is that bad.  If it had happened to us, we would just have a long meal at the airport and made sure we had a book and / or MP3 player with us to pass the time. I'd go through a lot more than that to travel to Belize.
I thought the airline was generous in offering vouchers.


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## MommaBear (Jan 4, 2011)

The strangest schedule change we ever had is went Delta changed one leg so we came into Atlanta 45 minutes AFTER the next leg went out... Good thing I looked! When I called Delta to let them know of their oops, they were as puzzled as I was that the computer had allowed them to make that error.


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## Pit (Jan 4, 2011)

Welcome to Rule 240/80.



> 2. If available reaccommodations are not acceptable to customer. Full refund of unused portion of the ticket as follows.
> 
> A. If schedule change is from a nonstop to a connection, a refund to form of payment (FOP) is allowed.
> B. If schedule change is from a through flight to a connecting flight, a refund to the FOP is not allowed unless "C" applies.
> ...



http://www.aa.com/i18n/agency/Booking_Ticketing/Reaccom/rule_240_80.jsp&locale=en_IN


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## PortableTech (Jan 12, 2011)

I think what sticks out to me of the OPs post is this part

*I emailed them with my info and my reply from them said that they have decided not to give us a cash refund as the schedule change was on 85 minutes and must be 90. We were never told anything about it needing to be 90 minutes or more.*

By saying that "they decided" that to me indicates they agreed to issue a cash refund, and then when management or whomever reviewed the refund later they decided to change it to vouchers without ever discussing it with the customer to see if that was acceptable.

If that is what occured, I think AA needs to refund the cash as that was what was agreed to.

-- PortableTech


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## Talent312 (Jan 12, 2011)

PortableTech said:


> By saying that "they decided" that to me indicates they agreed to issue a cash refund, and then when management or whomever reviewed the refund later they decided to change it...



What's clear is that some low-level CSR, likely well-intentioned but contrary to policy, said they would issue a refund, but when reviewed higher up the food-chain, a contrary decision more consistent with policy was made.

Too bad it didn't slip past them, but that's the breaks.


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## LisaRex (Jan 13, 2011)

What's REALLY clear is that the OPer doesn't care enough about the topic to return.


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