cancer is not a good enough reason for AA
 

We made our reservation with AA last Spring while my wife was undergoing "very aggressive" treatment for Cancer. She wanted to visit her parents (she, myself and our 2 children would go )and we thought she would be well enough to do so.
When the time came for our trip she was still bed ridden and unable to travel. We had to cancel our trip. I wrote to AA's customer service and AA said that it did not matter one bit if we submitted letters from her doctors they would still charge us $100 each to reschedule our trip. Today I tried to redeem our credits for a new trip on AA and was told that my wife and I cannot use the credits from our children's tickets. Not only did we have to pay a penalty but we were not allowed to use our entire credit !

Do not patronize American Airlines

That is just wrong

Discrimatory - Living with cancer is hard enough, lets start running our companies with compassion not greed!

wow... but not surprised with them
 

You should post this on trip advisor as well, under airline forums, when you click flights it will be half way down on the right side. People need to hear this and thousands look at that site daily!!!

I'm sorry about the cancer - it truly is heart-wrenching. However AA have done nothing wrong. When you book your flight, you are informed of the policies. If you don't purchase cancellation insurance, there are very few things that will qualify you for a refund or re-booking without a fee.

And as for the comment to "post this on trip advisor as well"... yeah - this is the kind of post that folks on TA absolutely LOVE!

Get with the times. We all have issues. We all have drama. But not all of us feel the need to bitch about it. Until something outright WRONG is done, you have no real right to post on this site.

mikey - the OP has an issue and has posted that the main issue is with the insurance company (Access America) who is denying his claim. He realized that the tickets were non-refundable and has no real issue with AA holding him to that.

I must say for your first post you chose to basically attack someone who is going through a lot both emotionally and financially. To say that someone has "no real right to post on this site" is ludicrous. He has as much right as you do.

To whom I address my "first post" is of no issue. To attack an airline for something like this is ludicrous, and that's why I chose to post.

Point taken about posting "rights," I did not choose my words correctly. But I stand by my point.

This may be my first post on this site, as I just discovered it. But I frequent other travel sites, and run across complaints of this sort all the time. The OP specifically states "do not patronize American Airlines." As I stated in my reply, the cancer issue is truly heart-wrenching. I was simply stating my point that American has really done nothing wrong.

Partial retraction. I thought we were on this post, however Paul Silasvaage chose to resurrect a nearly two year old thread. It was Paul who had a beef with Access America (the travel insurance company) and not AA.

I think that mikeynia has some issues with tripadvisor, i just saw another post by this person telling others not to put helpful complaints and advise to others.....freedom of speech/press, we have the right to and its the readers choice to read it or not, we are not forcing anyone to read it

besides it will be helpful for anyone who can be in the same situation or is planning a flight, even if it turns out nothing happens to the poster, other people can see this and make decisions upon insurance or not, all it is is helping others and there is NO problem at all with that mickey than just dont check trip advisor or just dont comment about it, seem a lil grumpy? no coffee?

i am sorry to hear about the cancer and i hope the best. it is very hard to deal with and it effects the whole family. i wish you luck and hopefully we will come up with a cure for cancer and all the other horrible diseases such as AIDS and so on.

and if you have a problem with that

Actually, I'm not at all grumpy. It's a lovely day here in NC, and I'm enjoying it quite well. I just took a walk to the market, spoke with some neighbors... lovely!

My point is - why complain about EVERYTHING? I am not the grumpy one. On the contrary - I make it a point to write to companies when excellent service is had. Rarely do I ever simply complain.

I have no issues with TripAdvisor, and am not sure what lead you to believe that. I have MANY posts on TA - some are argumentative, some are to offer advice, and some are seeking advice. I do not, however, complain on TA, nor do I have any issues with that site. I love that site, actually - I find it very helpful.

That being said, the most helpful posts are always the ones offering praise or general advice. Posts offering complaint or "DO NOT FLY THIS AIRLINE" offer little to the average traveler. These posts tend to be run-of-the-mill, and can truthfully happen to anyone, on any airline. That is why posts such as the one to which I replied are, generally, useless.

What has anyone learned from the OP?

Go ahead and take some time to read my TA posts. I have some pretty wonderful reviews on a ton of hotels that might assist you. Feel free to find me on Yelp as well, where I actively contribute.

However, I won't be griping on this forum about not getting a refund on a non-refundable ticket.

well to me it seemed like you were telling people not to go onto the site to post what they believe to be advice, you may think it is complaining but others will think it could be helpful, so its not all about complaining, besides i believe they would reword it so it would sound more like advice on the site

and i agree that when people say dont fly this airline are just over reacting and usually its over a small issue where they believe they were treated wrongly or it wasnt done the way they would like and it makes them believe it happens all the time, but most the time it appears that they just have it out for the airline and they over exagerate and change the story

but i believe this persons post is legitamate and should be looked at by others

it was also a nice day up here in nj, i went out for the towns 4mile run and talked and "challenged" friedns and neighbors in it, i than went for a bike ride around the park and than swam a little it was perfect weather outside, sunny n warm, and i just came back in for a min while havin a bbq with the neighbors

A nonrefundable ticket is nonrefundable.
A nontransferable ticket is nontransferable.

Passengers who want flexibility in their travel plans might consider buying a fully refundable ticket.