Help- American airlines, impossible to use credit.

tinkerbellcup

Hello, 

I'm hoping for any advice.  We had one way flights with AA booked for 2020 from LAX to Miami which was obviously cancelled.  There were 4 tickets, so it was under £400.  The credit was extended so we had to book by the end of March to go by september. When we went to use the credit, we were told we the flights had to originate from the USA.  which is difficult for us to do, clearly living in the UK. And if we booked a one way flight there, and then used the credit on a flight back that way we would be pointless because your doubling the ticket price. I Just find AA to be literally legally stealing our money and making it impossible to use the monies we've paid them.  So started the process of a chargeback with tesco.  Tesco have denied it because they said AA havent broken their terms of conditions, even though they admit its extremely restrictive.  I only ever noticed that term recently, I have no idea if its a recent addition on their website.  There is not a phone number to ring customer services at AA, only email which I still havent received a reply yet.  Does anyone have any ideas ect for me to get my moneyback or another way to go around a chargeback. 

[Deleted User]

tinkerbellcup said:

 legally stealing our money 

I don't think that would be possible. It's either stolen or it's legal, not both.

A chargeback won't work as they've provided the credit. It may be too late now, but was there a refund option at the tine, rather than credit?

When your say the flights were 'obviously cancelled', how were they obviously cancelled? And by whom?

eskbanker

Apart from anything else, it's far too late for chargeback if this relates to payment made at least a couple of years ago.

Section 75 also won't apply if each ticket cost less than £100.

That leaves travel insurance or court, and the latter is unlikely to be cost-effective for a domestic US flight, even if the airline cancelled it.

Thrugelmir

tinkerbellcup said:

When we went to use the credit, we were told we the flights had to originate from the USA.  which is difficult for us to do, clearly living in the UK. 

No different to the flights you originally booked though. You were offered like for like. 

bagand96

Did American Airlines cancel the flight? Or did it operate but you weren't on it because of Covid lockdown/travel restrictions?

If they cancelled it then you'd have been entitled to a refund at the time. If it operated then the voucher is probably more than they had to do anyway.

Does it have to be used on a flight booking? If you booked a return flight to the USA with AA could it be used to book extras or anything? Just an idea. 

tinkerbellcup

I cancelled the flights because my international flights had been cancelled (Norwegian Air). There was a pandemic if you didn't hear which banned travel to the usa.  i wish i had waited to see if American airlines would have cancelled the flight, but with it being domestic i couldn't really judge it. I cancelled it though believing that the credit wouldn't be restrictive. I doubt it would apply for extras but I never buy extras anyway.   My travel insurance had an excess of 100 pounds so again it wasn't worth going through that.  

[Deleted User]

tinkerbellcup said:

I cancelled the flights because my international flights had been cancelled (Norwegian Air). There was a pandemic if you didn't hear which banned travel to the usa.

That's the key bit of information.

If you cancel flights, you're subject to their cancellation policy, regardless of this pandemic of which you speak. If no refund was due, then any form of credit was more than they owed you.

bagand96

tinkerbellcup said:

I cancelled the flights because my international flights had been cancelled (Norwegian Air). There was a pandemic if you didn't hear which banned travel to the usa.  i wish i had waited to see if American airlines would have cancelled the flight, but with it being domestic i couldn't really judge it. I cancelled it though believing that the credit wouldn't be restrictive. I doubt it would apply for extras but I never buy extras anyway.   My travel insurance had an excess of 100 pounds so again it wasn't worth going through that.  

Of course we understand there was a pandemic and that travel to the USA was banned.

However in simple contract terms you booked a flight from Los Angeles to Miami, whilst it's not your fault you couldn't get to LAX in the first place, it's not American Airline's either. Most flights are non-refundable so the offer of the voucher is likely over and above what they had to provide - most airlines offered similar policies during the pandemic. 

The idea of using it for extras was just an idea to get some value from it. I guess the only other way is to book a domestic US flight. 

Westin

tinkerbellcup said:

I cancelled the flights because my international flights had been cancelled (Norwegian Air). There was a pandemic if you didn't hear which banned travel to the usa.  i wish i had waited to see if American airlines would have cancelled the flight, but with it being domestic i couldn't really judge it. I cancelled it though believing that the credit wouldn't be restrictive. I doubt it would apply for extras but I never buy extras anyway.   My travel insurance had an excess of 100 pounds so again it wasn't worth going through that.  

Ouch. Rather unnecessary remark to someone trying to help. 

Having now provided more information @Deleted_User and @bagand96 highlight the position and limited options you have.  

Upsidedownandaround

Pre pandemic you wouldn’t even have been given a credit if you were unable to use domestic flights you had booked due to your International flights being cancelled.

silvercar

Why not book the cheapest flight to a USA hub you can find and then take an internal AA flight to use up your credit.