With all that is going on in the world we are seeing airlines offering added flexibility to travel arrangements. This includes allowing passengers to change their flights to a later date without penalty or making other concessions to ensure you’re made whole for existing reservations. The only catch here is that airlines are only offering these waivers through April 30th (for now), but I expect that date to be extended in the future.
I’ve been fairly lucky this year in that I don’t have any major international trips planned until Summer. Therefore, I haven’t really had to do much in terms of managing my existing reservations. That being said, I did have one trip scheduled for April 2020 that I needed to change.
Earlier this year I booked round trip flights for my girlfriend and I to visit her family over Easter weekend. For once, we decided to be proactive and booked the flights several months early for (at the time) a fairly reasonable price. Better yet, we managed to book flights on American’s 787-8 in both directions. So, assuming our upgrades cleared, we would have lie-flat seats both ways.
At first I was going to simply change my existing trip to a later date, but then I noticed prices today are about half of what I originally paid. Instead, I decided that I was going to try to get a refund and rebook at the lower price.
Calling American To Cancel My Existing Reservation – 1st Attempt
Given that Easter weekend fell within the April 30th waived change fee period, I decided to call American to hear my options in mid-March. When I called I was told that I could move my trip to a later date at no charge. However, I was not yet eligible for a refund since neither of our flights were canceled.
During that call I decided to leave everything in place as it stood. Both the aircraft types and flight times changed from our original itinerary, but I wasn’t ready to move the flights. Instead, I waited until a later date to call the airline again to hear my options.
Calling American To Cancel My Existing Reservation – 2nd Attempt
About two weeks after the initial call, I discovered an email from American regarding further flight changes. At this point, both of my original flights had been rescheduled. When I compared my new flights to the original flights I noticed the flight numbers had also changed, which implies a cancelation and rebooking. Because of this, I should have been eligible for a refund and I called American to confirm.
After a short hold I reached a friendly American phone agent who seemed extremely willing to assist. Sure enough, as I explained the situation to her, she immediately noted that I was eligible for a refund. She also mentioned that I could change my flights to a later date free of charge which wasn’t interesting to me at the time. Instead, I asked her to kindly process the refund. I was then told that because of the global situation, the refund could take as long as 14 days. I acknowledged the timing and asked to proceed with the refund anyway.
Receiving A Cash Refund From American
After the call with American I didn’t receive any additional emails or correspondence about my trip. Instead, the flights dropped out of my upcoming trips list and I waited for the refund. Thankfully, American was able to issue a cash refund back to my credit card in less than 48 hours. I was personally shocked by the turnaround time given the prior notice of up to 14 days. Either way, the refund process was incredibly easy.
Final Thoughts
From this experience I was reminded of some advice I read a few weeks back. That is, if you have an upcoming trip planned, hold off on doing anything until the last moment possible. In some cases, that may mean waiting to call the airline until the day of travel. See, if the airline cancels your flight you should be eligible for a refund.
However, if you cancel the flight early, you might have to pay a penalty. Likewise, if you move your flights to a later day, you might end up paying more than the flights are priced today. Instead, wait until the last minute to see if you can get your cash back. Then, go online and try to book flights at a later day for a lower price. This is our plan going forward now that I have a nice negative balance on my credit card account.
