I usually book roundtrip flights as two one way tickets. That’s one change I made since the pandemic. When there were change fees on most tickets, I’d book roundtrips because if I needed to cancel the trip I would pay two change fees instead of one – often winding up with little to no credit.
Now there aren’t change fees on most tickets, except for basic economy tickets. That lets me book one ways, which gives me a lot more flexibility. For instance,
- I can make changes to just one direction of travel without cancelling the whole thing
- I can cancel the return, even online, and retain a credit after I’ve flown the outbound
Of course I check whether booking two one ways or a roundtrip is cheaper. For paid tickets, domestically, it usually doesn’t make a difference.
Adapting to the new world of no change fees, and getting things done online or in an airline app, American Airlines has made an important change to roundtrip tickets. It is now possible to cancel a roundtrip ticket online, even after you’ve started flying the itinerary, and get a credit to use later.
In order to get a flexible trip credit, which can be used for other passengers or combined with other trip credits, you need to be the only passenger on a domestic reservation purchased in the U.S. (and not in basic economy). Trip credits can now be used from some international destinations. Other itineraries receive flight credits.
If a ticket was priced as roundtrip, and you cancel after the trip has started, American will reprice the portion of the trip that has already been flown as one-way to figure out how much value is left. And if there is no remaining value, the unflown portion fo the ticket is retained as a Flight Credit to be used on a future flight within a year of the date of the first segment on the ticket.
This is a genuine improvement! Here’s an internal Q&A from American’s systems on the change:
Remember also that a recent change means that you should almost always cancel American Airlines tickets at the last minute.
Helpful
I didn’t realize Flight credits and Trip credits are different.
I tried this with another airline (who shall remain unnamed cause they are fantastic in every way).. the agent said they would reprice the trip as a single one-way flight and then see if there was any value to refund into a credit.. given that most one-way on this airline is $2500 and the round trip is $600… well
Did this just last week on a LGA-DCA segment. Worked perfectly.
This is a great new feature. And I can see why there’s some situations where it won’t work, but this should cover most peoples needs. At a former airline, as one of the few remaining who knew the old green screen, I could do partial trip credits/refunds (whereas most people had to queue them to the refunds department which could take a week or two). This is due to that while you may have by segment fares, the various taxes usually were calculated off of the total and not many were skilled in dividing up the tariffs. As you mentioned, it’s not always an even 50% of a round trip.
I just was in chat about changing the outbound on a round trip. The agent told me that if I wanted to change only the outbound that they would reprice the entire trip. A big problem because the return was much more expensive compared to when I bought, but not the outbound. So changing the outbound to a same priced flight I would have to pay way more just because of the return. ….. So was the agent wrong? Or is that another reason to just buy two one ways?
Genuine question: so now I can skiplag and just cancel the 2nd leg after I get off the plane at the desired destination? I’m sure it must not mean that but seems like it – not sure I’m following.
It’s not that simple.
I had a LAX-DUB-LAX. Couldn’t travel on the return.
When I went to rebook the DUB-LAX, it was triple the trip portion.
It’s a scam, because the one way is always more.
TIP – if you have a doctor’s note for being sick, or AA changes the flight time, AA WILL refund the credit as cash to method of payment.
Sorry, is trip credit just $ refunded back in the form of airline credit (like store credit) to use towards any new travel on said airline for yourself or anyone else? And flight credit basically that you retain an open flight segment (same segment you didn’t fly) that you and only you can choose to fly at anytime within a year, without paying extra? And would that have to be with availability in the same fare class? I’m still having difficulty with the distinction, if that’s not the case.
@ Gary — Delta will royally screw you if cancel the remainder of a roundtrip awatd. Accordingly, I only book one ways on domestic trios when I use DL miles.