TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums St. Maarten - St. Martin AA Flight Changes--You may be able to cancel NOW

We are booked 5-11 DFW-MIA-SXM returning 5-18 SXM-MIA-DFW. I have NOT cancelled the flights as I am waiting on AA to do so. I went to refunds.aa.com and input my ticket number. It showed "not eligible for refund". I am not sure if this is because I have not cancelled or what. Any ideas?

My flights had changed in terms of TIME and EQUIPMENT from when I booked them, so I was able to cancel for our end of May trip and get a refund. Since your flight is technically still listed as going, if you attempt to cancel yourself now, you would be forced to accept a voucher. I really don't know what the time limits are on the vouchers they are giving out now, as in, when they have to be used by. Originally they had to be used within one year of the date of the original booking. If you booked a LONG time ago, as we did, then the voucher might be virtually useless to you. It would only have gotten us to August of this year. If you booked relatively recently, then one year from the date of the original booking might be good enough. The other day when I called AA, I did the 'call back' thing and it was only 5 minutes before they called me back. So, you may want to give them a call and find out what your options are. They are giving like a 25% bonus if you do accept a voucher. If you don't want a voucher at all, then suggest you just wait a while longer and see what shakes out.

My refund also immediately said pending and we actually saw the funds in the account in 6 days.

It may not have been that long, as I didn't really note when I applied. Every day feels like a week lately

Edited to add that it was only 8 days, lol. I applied the day this thread was first posted.

Time seems a very expandable thing these days. Nothing is at all normal.

Right. I have to keep thinking what day it is. Sometimes I get it wrong too.😛

Same timing for me. Refund requested Friday; still pending review. I am not making any assumptions as I canceled my reservation before they canceled the flight.

Heck. AA is still showing flights available after May 6 to SXM. Checked on mine for May and still active.

Will check on the status of my refund tomorrow.

Linda, we did the same, but did get a refund. Good luck with yours!

Thanks, Georgia. You canceled your reservation before they canceled the flight?

Yes, I did, Linda. In fact, I'm not 100% sure the flight was actually canceled. I looked for it on Flight Aware after the fact, and didn't see it; but I'm not sure that's reliable proof.

That's encouraging. My request is still "pending review."

Update: We just received emails from AA that our vouchers were reinstated, with a new expiration date one year from today. I hadn't gotten around to sending them an email, so the reinstatement was obviously a part of the refund process. I'm pretty happy with how AA has handled this situation.

Good deal!

With the exception of Southwest, all of the other biggies have gone bankrupt this century already shedding most of the 20th century baggage.

The airlines were finally doing pretty well and Delta last year gave huge profit sharing payouts to all.

The only thing that would prevent bankruptcy is a broad Federal bailout of the industry.

Even if they restored full schedules tomorrow and were allowed to fly everywhere who would go for months?

I flew on Sept 14, 2001 it was a bold step and I stared down every person in the gatehouse looking for a bad guy. I thought the pilots would be locked in the cockpit but rather they to were at the door staring down everyone who boarded the flight.

The only way to stare down the passengers going forward is to have a test certificate. Otherwise, it is a game of roulette.

https://youtu.be/t5kNHiGIKGQ

The islanders don't yet want to play a game of roulette with Passenger arriving constantly on “mine island”.

Georgia--glad to hear it! As of yesterday, our refunds were still 'pending review', but I reckon it will happen soon.

Our flight showed as changed...i.e. the flight from Seattle to Charlotte was still there but the flight to SSM was gone.,,just disappeared. I called and they graciously offered to cancel and give a refund or a voucher for 120% of the value good until December of 2021sRequested the refund and it's pending review.

Same here. Our May redeye from Seattle was changed to a morning flight to CLT but our connection to SXM was leaving before out flight arrived in CLT. I know I'm not going in May but found it comical that they made and sent those changes. As of now my July trip is unchanged from original booking and plan on going.

With the increasing reports of higher percentages of people in Massachusetts testing positive for the presence of antibodies, as having past exposure - it is starting to look like travel for those people would not be a risky or infectious proposition.
Any ideas whether June travel to the friendly island for them might be possible or advisable?

Probably not until this gets figured out:

Reinfection possibility link

At this juncture, I would have to reasonably question whether June travel to SXM would be possible for anyone from the US., let alone advisable. A lot has to be worked out and come together for this to happen and June is not that far away. Realistically, it is probably too early to know what the situation will be but personally, I don't see it as very likely by then.

Was on phone with AA and cancelled my May trip. They cancelled reservations over phone but had to go to AAcom/refund to do the refund request. Then since I used an eVoucher I had to request a reissue and extension for that. My return was with miles so that was automatic via the phone call. Time consuming but it's done. Now keeping my fingers crossed for our July trip.

Had to be done, of course. We received an email this morning that our refund (that we requested on April 14) had been fully processed by AA and that it may take up to a week to see it actually post to our credit card. Best wishes for the July trip, although I personally don't think I would even WANT go to at that point, even if I could.

So did I!

Good deal for all 3 of you.

Good deal, Linda.

Just checked my AA account and all my miles have already been redeposited from cancelling my return trip yesterday. Now I'll wait to get the refund for the first leg on my CC.

I got a phone call from AA shortly after 9pm last night. It was a rather strange call. The agent asked me if I was aware of the changes AA had made to my flights. I told her I was aware of the changes but was not concerned since I knew the flights would be cancelled anyway. She proceeded to tell me the flights were still showing to be departing on the scheduled dates. I told her that maybe the DFW-MIA would depart but not the MIA-SXM leg because PJIA was closed and not scheduled to open until after my flights. She seemed to be not aware of that fact. She asked me if I wanted her to cancel the flights. I told her to cancel the flights and then I questioned her on refunds vs. vouchers. She said I could go to refunds.aa.com to request a refund. I then asked her about the 20% extra if I chose a voucher. She told me that I would be given that option during the refund process. Like I said, it was a strange call as I had not received anything from AA prior to the call. I have all the notifications enabled on my account. Below is the email that I received confirming the cancellation.

"Your trip is canceled

Record locator:

Trip canceled on: April 21, 2020 at 9:12 PM (CT)

Don’t worry, the value of your ticket is safe. Please wait to call until you’re ready to rebook, and you’ll be able to use the value of your unused ticket and seat purchase toward a future trip.

Keep this email, which includes your ticket number, for when you’re ready to rebook.

If your trip was not booked directly with American, please contact your travel agency or original booking source to rebook your trip.

If you canceled within 24 hours of ticket purchase, and at least 2 days before departure, we’ll process your refund automatically.

Read more about our coronavirus updates."

When were you scheduled to travel? That is kind of weird. My advice is not to wait until you're ready to travel again, but go ahead and request your refund or voucher now.

I was told to go to AA.com/refund to request refund after phone cancellation which worked not refunds aa.com which will take you nowhere.

Carol, we were due to fly May 11th and return May 18th.

Jaybird==ok, thanks.

Our AA flight is scheduled for May 15th and hasn't been cancelled yet. If the plane does go and the beaches are open we will be on the plane. I just need to get out of the house at any cost.

DRich--I see zero chance that flight will go...

We rebooked our villa and purchased 1st class tix on American for $640 ea for July 5th - 14th. Have not cancelled our tix for May 22nd - 31st.
Will wait for AA to cancel the flight and refund. If by some miraculous change of heart, they reopen the SXM airport by May 22nd, we will still go then!

It will not reopen until at least June. Take the refund.

I think it is VERY unlikely, but I am still holding out hope until they cancel the flight. I would be happy with a 5% chance but don't think it is that high.

So, AA rejected my request for a refund, apparently because I cancelled the trip prior to them cancelling the flight. They have offered to let me reschedule, but, naturally, I prefer cash-in-hand. So, I filed my 250 character max appeal, letting them know what DOT says (not being Twitter proficient, I'm not good at conveying my point succinctly, with their character limitation). Let's see how this goes. I have plenty of time, and don't need the cash in the near future, so I can play the long game, if that's what's required. I have another protest in with Orbitz on a hotel cancellation, but I have so much time on my hands these days, this is actually a nice distraction. And, while I have rescheduled our Mar/Apr trip to November, I'm beginning to think it may not go off. Time for a margarita. Salud!

I have not heard anything positive with regard to third party booking sites when it comes to refunds. Not saying they may not be out there but a friend had a trip to Ireland cancelled and one of the big name booking sites is giving them all kinds of grief. They got the air refunded but not the hotel and land portion of the trip. Good luck.