With the COVID-19 pandemic, many travelers have been trying to figure out what to do with previously booked travel. For the most part, airlines have been fairly generous in allowing customers to move travel plans to a later date. However, getting refunds, especially cash refunds, for non-refundable travel continues to be a challenge. That makes total sense for airlines, but can be especially frustrating for customers.
So far, I’ve been very fortunate in my experiences with American Airlines. I’ve canceled two different trips and received cash refunds in both instances. In both cases I called the airline more than once and received different information with each call. I don’t think that’s because anyone wasn’t telling me the truth, but rather because things change every single day right now.
My First American Airlines COVID-19 Cash Refund
I wrote about my first refund a few weeks ago, but wanted to briefly discuss it again as it relates to my second refund. The first refund I received from American was for flights booked over Easter weekend. I knew well in advance that we were not going to take this trip, so I called American in mid-March to discuss my options. With that call I was told that because the flights were prior to April 30 we could change them without penalty, but that we were not eligible for a refund.
A few weeks later, American made some schedule changes and both our departure and our return flights had changed. In both cases, our departure times changed by more than 2 hours, which at that time, meant we were eligible for a full cash refund. After receiving the notice of a schedule change I called American and my refund was processed within 48 hours.
My Second American Airlines COVID-19 Cash Refund
While trying to cancel my first trip I also had my eye on a second trip. The trip in question was a one-way flight from Chicago to New York scheduled for May 1st. This meant that my trip fell outside of American’s original April 30th waiver period. So, the first few times I called American, this trip wasn’t eligible for changes or a refund at all.
However, over the next few weeks American extended the waiver period from April 30 to September 30 for flights booked before May 31. This meant that my trip on May 1 now qualified for free changes. While this was a generous change, I still wanted to wait and try to get a cash refund.
On April 1st I received an email from American of a schedule change to my trip. This change pulled my departure time forward by 3 hours and 45 minutes. When I called to cancel my Easter flights I used this change as grounds to try to cancel this trip as well. It was then that I was told only changes of more than 4 hours qualified for a refund. So, I decided to sit tight and continue to wait.
Then, around April 15th I noticed my flights had once again changed on the American Airlines app. This time my departure time changed by nearly 12 hours and I now had a stop in Charlotte. After seeing that change I called American and again asked for a refund. This time though, my refund request was granted.
Receiving My Second Cash Refund From American
Like the first refund, shortly after hanging up with American the trip I canceled disappeared from my list of reservations. Unlike the first refund, the second took much longer than 48 hours. Instead, it took about 7 days for American to issue a refund for the second trip. Don’t get me wrong, this isn’t a terribly long time to wait, but it is much longer than the first time.
The other thing I discovered with the second cash refund is that there isn’t really a way to track the refund status. Instead, I just had to wait for an email from American which notified me when the refund was issued. As far as I could tell, there wasn’t an easy way to see a “refund pending” page for the canceled reservation. There also weren’t any emails which confirmed that I would be getting a refund in the first place.
Final Thoughts
Overall, I’m extremely pleased with American’s customer service over the past two months. In both cases, I received refunds for non-refundable tickets which is always unexpected. Personally, I’m surprised that American granted cash refunds in the first place. I completely expected to receive travel vouchers in both instances.
Also, both of these experiences have taught me the power of patience. Had I made changes to either trip early on in the process I would have missed out on the refunds. I’ll admit, it was tempting to simply call and push both trips to later dates, but I’m glad I didn’t. Instead I continued to wait and both times it paid off, literally.
