American Airlines Flight & Trip Credits Explained

This scheme of credits is needlessly complex. That imposes a cost to AA, in burdensome training needs and the increased potential for confusion among frontline representatives, which is hard to offset by the savings from breakage.

AA is probably not measuring the full impact of confusing their reps; when policies are simple, reps deliver better customer service, which increases customer satisfaction and thus retention and revenue.

Why not do away with all credits and just issue miles or gift cards?

Huh? Miles get devalued. Cash value is much better. I don’t want miles when I cancel a flight; I want the dollar amount for a future purchase.

Recently got the following email from American after canceling a flight and receiving a flight credit which they automatically converted to a trip credit. Makes me suspect they are moving to a trip credit only model.
--------------------------------------
We’re making it easier to redeem your unused travel credit for when you’re ready to travel again. Previously when your travel plans changed, we issued a Flight Credit for the value of your unused trip. Now, we’re converting your Flight Credit to a Trip Credit so you have more flexibility to pay for future travel. Here’s the benefits of your new Trip Credit:

Combine up to 8 Trip Credits to buy tickets
Redeem them on aa.com or by calling Reservations

Is this similar to how United's credits work. I'd appreciate a write-up on that if you could publish it

Oof… don't look too closely at inflation rates in the last year 🙂

AA reps are super confused by rules of these credits. I have a $1300 trip credit expiring on Aug 16th 2023. Wanted to use it on a 3 person itinerary in Oct to Cancun for $1280. AA.com won't allow me. So I firstly did a online chat. The rep told me it cannot be used for children (there is one child in the party). Then I had to call. The phone rep told me I have to fly before August 16th 2023 to be able to use it. At this point I am so confused. Shall I call them again?

Oh worst of the worst, I then booked a $114 one way ticket (aa.com allowed me to) and hoped the rest of it will become a new trip credit. It did not. Now I have a $114 flight credit with an expiration date of Aug 15th 2023 and the rest of the money on the trip credit with the same expiration date of Aug 16th 2023!

They make the Flight Credit too annoying to deal with. I rarely travel alone, so i always have to call to use the Flight Credits. It is also annoying that i can't click on the Flight Credit on the website and see how much it is for. So I try to keep a record of what they should be and hope that amount gets credited each time i call to use it.

Your stock photo from OGG 🙁

Fly by the expiration date sounds correct. (Also, credits are def too complex for the chat support, which is pretty low level.)

Not according to this article: "A trip credit needs to be used within one year of when the trip credit was issued (rather than when the original ticket was issued), and you only need to book by then, and not actually commence travel by then"

Note: if you have a credit and want to book a flight from an international destination back to USA on AA.com and part of that trip is on a partner airline the credits are useless...

Wish they would follow SWA lead and consolidate all flight credits and get rid of expiration dates. No reason to consider flight and trip credits different.

That they needed a matrix (and this blog post really, which is great btw) should have been a signal they had it all wrong.

In early 2020 I booked several trips on AA. I ended up with both flight and trip credits. I lost credits because they expired before I realized I had then and I also asked AA to reissue other credits bc I wasn’t able to use then before they expired. All in all I wished I had been reimbursed, but they was not a possibility. LA did reimbursed me every single booking without penalty, even though that took a while. Airline customer service is usually so weird and annoying. Even corner shops provide better, more straightforward service.

Apparently you do not know abput the level of complexity in their IT systems, if you think the cost to change would be minimal. If so, it would have been done

Did you find a resolution? I have flight credit expiring at the end of the year too.

Thanks for this post, it was very timely. I have a trip credit expiring in about a month and was trying to figure out the ins and outs. You answered my biggest question: if i need to change or cancel the trip i book with it, am i screwed? Sounds like it works out well, re-upping the credit.

I just cancelled an international flight that was listed "'flexible" but was not allowed a refund which is what we wanted. We were issued a Trip Credit which allows only for U.S. flights and not international of which we are going to reschedule! Try using a nearly $10K flight credit in the U.S. for 1 passenger (instead of 2) even if you fly Business or First!

One important discovery about partially used credits I found out the hard way. If you book a flight for multiple people and there is any credit left, it will not stay assigned to the person the credit was initially assigned to even if they are a ticketed passenger on the same reservation, but rather will be created as a new credit to the person who is listed last on your reservation. In my case, I had a little over $200 left on my credit and after booking a flight for several of us, the credit was then issued to the last person on the reservation instead of staying assigned to myself. This does not seem logical to me, so I did want to warn others that this will happen (at least as of September 2023). Customer service will not move the credit back to your account unless you fight it for a while and then get the person it was re-assigned to fill out a form that is hard to find with a testimonial stating that they want to move the credit back to the original owner. Also, you will not be notified of this credit number unless you reach out to the last person on the reservation and ask them for it. Then you both have it, so hope that person is a good friend since AA just gave them your flight credit info, or from AA perspective, you intended to gift it to them since they were listed last on the reservation (even though they do not warn you this will occur on any of their terms and agreement nor during the booking process).

This post is very helpful. I was in Buenos Aires and canceled some plans and needed to fly home 3 days earlier. I called American Airlines and "canceled" my flight home to Seattle. I booked a new flight home from Buenos Aires and used a CC. Customer Service told me I'd have a year. I tried to book a round trip domestic ticket last week and called Customer Service to utilize the "number" they sent me in an email that won't show up on my membership. Turns out I can NOT use the amount towards ANY flight but a flight originating from Buenos Aires! I think now I have a "FLIGHT" credit versus a more usable "TRIP" credit. I don't see anyway to use the roughly 4K "FLIGHT" credit since I can only do a flight orginating from Buenos Aires. What a rip off that leaves a sour taste in my mouth towards AA!

I fell the day before my trip and could not walk. Can I get credit for this ticket? I would like to use the same flight (to visit my Mom) at a later date.

I cancelled a flight last June that I originally booked in Nov of 22. I had a stroke a couple months before the flight and wasn’t able to make the trip so I got flight credit. I thought it expired a year after cancellation but found out it was from purchase date. I tried to rebook for this June just now and found that out. That was a $550 ticket. There shouldn’t even be an expiration date. It’s not their money if no flight. I’m trying to get help with this. Any suggestions I did the customer relation mail in. Haven’t heard back yet

The first leg of a connecting flight was delayed due to AA over-fueling the plane, I missed my connecting flight and was told there were no hotels in Miami (spring break) and they could get me out on the last flight out the next day. I decided to rent a car and drive from Miami to Savannah. Am I entitled to any reimbursement either for the connecting flight or rental car?

How do I know if this is a trip credit or a flight credit? I once downgraded from first class to regular class to get this credit. I then booked a flight that was refundabled and cancelled it.

Screenshot is out of date. Cancellations through aa.com now offer trip credit rather than flight credit. Over the phone, it's still flight credit.

We canceled flights originating from Auckland NZ to the USA. Then we rebooked via Sydney. I did this because of a better chance to use my SWUs.

When trying to book my wife a flight to Vegas there was a problem with how they put here name on the credit, they added Mrs, so it kept rejecting as the name did not match how it is on her AA Advantage account.

Called reservations, wherby they told me that flight credits for a flight originating outside the USA it only available to use for another flight from the same city, hence Auckland.

When I look at the flight credit rules on AA.com, I see nothing regarding that information. How can one play by the rules if they are not upfront with the rules?

I am trying to book a one way ticket and NOT fly but turn flight credit into trip credit, trying to save $2000 worth of tickets. will this work? of if I am a no show will it change anything

I bought 4 tickets June 11 2024 to flight in Dec 2024 but I can’t make the trip and I can’t flight again until July 2025. How can I get a trip credit instead of flight credit

Does this still work? An update on this would be helpful.

My wife and I each have a trip credit in our separate accounts. Can I book a fliught for the two of us, to keep us on the same itinerary, and pay for it with my trip credit AND hers? Of do we each have to book our flights separately to use our credits?

I just booked a flight by phone with flight credit and wanted basic Economy, but the agent said i had to book the main cabin, which was more money, why would that be?

I've been trying to book online with my trip credit and it's the same. There is no option for economy. 🙁

My account doesn't show a trip credit for a March 16, 2026 weather cancelation.
Can it take up to 2 weeks for it to post to account?

Only ONE previous credit is showing in my account.
I need to book another flight using BOTH credits.