Questions and Answers

Hello Lucky,

I am a regular reader of your blog, and I really enjoy reading all the posts and insights. I have some questions about the fare rules on unrestricted ticket of F, J and Y. In fact, this came from reading your post about incredible JAL F ticket from ICN to the US yesterday.

I took advantage of this opportunity and speculatively booked a ticket from ICN to JFK a few months in advance. Yet, shortly after being ticketed, I realized I’d need to make a change on the date of departure. I called AA to make the change, but I was told I need to pay for the fare difference although I will need to pay for the change fee (which is not applicable for F ticket). I chose not to change and instead cancelled the ticket. I checked again on the website, but the fare was actually still the same as my original ticket.

So, I am a little bit confused about the definition of “unrestricted ticket”. I thought I am allowed to make change free of charge as long as there are available seats at my originally ticketed fare bucket (F). Can you let me know if this is a misunderstanding? Or, can I or should I ask the AA agent to exchange the ticket to a different date with the same routing?

On this subject, can I also ask if it is possible to get a refund a partially used, unrestricted ticket?

Finally, if possible, can you also share some of your experiences (if any) in getting refund from AA? I was informed by the agent that she could only cancel the ticket, and I would need to go through their website to submit the request. In my past experiences with UA, the agent would just reverse the transaction and refund the amount. Is it not the case with AA?

Thank you!

hi WCCMD. Different airlines have different policies on how to handle refunds. I’ve had UA also direct me to the website for refunds for fees. I would just follow the process.

My understanding is that unrestricted tickets just mean that you won’t have to pay any fees for changes or cancellations but you would have to pay the difference in fare. If you think about it, if this was not the case everyone would book the cheapest fare they could find on the schedule and then switch to peak dates. Hopefully you were able to get tickets for the dates you want. Enjoy the flight!