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- Sep 11, 2006
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Quick back story. We had to cancel two trips - one to Chicago in late April, one to St. Thomas in mid-May. Both were booked on AA using a combination of cash & Chase Ultimate Reward points.
I cancelled the Chicago trip directly with AA because at that time, the Chase site didn't have "refund" as an option even though AA had already made a qualifying schedule change. Canceling on the AA site was quick and easy. A week or two later I received an email stating that the cancellation had been processed and that my MasterCard had been refunded. Interesting, as I don't have a MC. I decided to let the dust settle and see if AA/Chase/Expedia (who Chase uses) could sort it out and after 8 days, I received an email from Chase indicating that the cash/points were back in my account. Doing nothing seemed to have worked. I have verified that things are back in my account.
Next was the expensive tickets, St. Thomas. I wanted a refund, not a voucher with restrictions but I finally wimped out and cancelled on the Chase site using their cancellation tool on April 9th. I made screenshots of everything. I never received a confirmation email which seemed odd, but the website was very clear that you were not to contact them as it would slow down the process. Today I decided that this had gone on long enough as the trip was still active on the website. I had also received an email two days ago about a schedule change. I didn't even read it as I figured that Chase was canceling the trip. So today I called - of course the wrong Chase Travel number - but the woman that I spoke with told me to use the chat feature on the website. Short story - it took 30 minutes to find out that 1) they had no record of me canceling the trip 2) Because AA had recently changed the flights we were now eligible for a refund 3) the rep cancelled everything and we are getting a full refund of points/cash.
I am fairly impatient by nature. If anything, this experience has taught me that I can wait a week or two to allow people time to do their jobs. It was a lot less stress, that is for sure. I was planning to cancel my Chase Sapphire Reserve this year, but based upon the customer service that I have received, I may just go ahead and keep it. Maybe this will help someone else with their trip cancellations, especially with the timing of how the cancellations worked. It was slower than I am used to, but in the end it worked out the way it was designed, in fact a bit better for me as the delay in canceling the St. Thomas trip allowed for the full refund.
I cancelled the Chicago trip directly with AA because at that time, the Chase site didn't have "refund" as an option even though AA had already made a qualifying schedule change. Canceling on the AA site was quick and easy. A week or two later I received an email stating that the cancellation had been processed and that my MasterCard had been refunded. Interesting, as I don't have a MC. I decided to let the dust settle and see if AA/Chase/Expedia (who Chase uses) could sort it out and after 8 days, I received an email from Chase indicating that the cash/points were back in my account. Doing nothing seemed to have worked. I have verified that things are back in my account.
Next was the expensive tickets, St. Thomas. I wanted a refund, not a voucher with restrictions but I finally wimped out and cancelled on the Chase site using their cancellation tool on April 9th. I made screenshots of everything. I never received a confirmation email which seemed odd, but the website was very clear that you were not to contact them as it would slow down the process. Today I decided that this had gone on long enough as the trip was still active on the website. I had also received an email two days ago about a schedule change. I didn't even read it as I figured that Chase was canceling the trip. So today I called - of course the wrong Chase Travel number - but the woman that I spoke with told me to use the chat feature on the website. Short story - it took 30 minutes to find out that 1) they had no record of me canceling the trip 2) Because AA had recently changed the flights we were now eligible for a refund 3) the rep cancelled everything and we are getting a full refund of points/cash.
I am fairly impatient by nature. If anything, this experience has taught me that I can wait a week or two to allow people time to do their jobs. It was a lot less stress, that is for sure. I was planning to cancel my Chase Sapphire Reserve this year, but based upon the customer service that I have received, I may just go ahead and keep it. Maybe this will help someone else with their trip cancellations, especially with the timing of how the cancellations worked. It was slower than I am used to, but in the end it worked out the way it was designed, in fact a bit better for me as the delay in canceling the St. Thomas trip allowed for the full refund.