One of the best things to come out of the pandemic is that the three major U.S. airlines (American Airlines, United Airlines and Delta Air Lines) were so desperate for customers, they dropped change fees. This allowed those who were sick with Covid (or anything else) to stay home and not spread their illness.
I love the ‘new’ rule since I often change my plans; something is always coming up like one of us (me, my wife or one of our two little kids) getting sick. So this allows us to change our tickets without being penalized financially. In the last few years, I’ve canceled or changed dozens of tickets thanks to this new flexibility, so I’ve also racked up a lot of credits.
The most memorable cancelations (memorable because they hurt the most) were Christmas 2022 when my wife was still recovering from Covid so she couldn’t fly to see her family in Toronto; and this past summer when we were supposed to fly to Europe for two weeks to go on an epic Mediterranean cruise but we caught hand, foot and mouth. Here’s that story.
Almost every flight I have had to cancel, I’ve waited to the last minute to see if the flight is severely delayed or cancelled since I’d rather get a cash refund than a credit. But 99% of the time, the flight goes out on time so I log onto the airline’s website (in this case AA.com for American) or their app and cancel.
It’s imperative you do this before departure or you lose the money. If you book through a third party, it’s risky since you have to go through them, so leave plenty of time in between.
Flight Credit vs. Trip Credit
Once you cancel your flight, you get a Flight Credit. Flight Credits are restrictive and have to be booked by their expiration date or you lose them. Also, they must be used by the person whose name is on the ticket.
My trick is to book a cheap ticket (like $49 between LAX and SFO) so I get the remainder of the ticket value put into a much more lenient Trip Credit, which has an expiration date one year from the day you just booked.
I know, American makes their credits confusing because they have two types of credits: Flight Credits and Trip Credits. What you really want is a Trip Credit because this money can be used by anybody you want and you can combine up to eight Trip Credits to buy a ticket.
Just keep note of the expiration dates (I set calendar reminders; here’s how) and note that this trick doesn’t apply to Basic Economy tickets.
KEEP READING
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–How to use your wireless headphones to watch in-flight movies
–10 airport security hacks every traveler should know
–How to get the best coach seat on the plane
–The sleep hack every traveler needs to know
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