American Voided My Ticket
 

I had made plane reservations in November 2009 for Jan 2010 travel. As the January date got near I found that I would be unable to make the flight on those dates.

I called American and told them I needed to change my ticket. They asked me what dates I wanted to change it to. At that point, I had no idea when my schedule would open up. So I told them I was not sure what date I needed to change it to.

They told me I needed to call back when I know what dates I wanted to travel. I didn't think this was odd because that is the same process that they had given me every time that I had to change my plans in the past.

I called today to change my flight dates and was told that the ticket was VOIDED and marked as a NO SHOW. I explained to them that the last time I called they had told me to call back when I knew what dates I was going to be traveling.

But, they said the customer service rep had not cancelled the itenarary so the ticket had no value. And there was nothing they could do.

I talked to the supervisor who told me the same thing. I had her look at my file and the fact that I had been a loyal traveller with American for over 12 years and had paid for a numerous amount of the $150 rebooking fees. Was American willing to lose a customer like myself over their oversite.

She told me they didn't want to lose any customer, but she couldn't do anything for me.

Needless to say, I feel like a chump that I used American for that many years.

Call back again. Whether you called to cancel or whether you just didn't show up makes no difference. Your ticket has value for 1 year from date of purchase.

If the next call doesn't satisfy you, get all the documentation you can and send an email to the DOT. A link to them can be found under 'Quick Links' on this website.

Is that right? I thought a non refundable ticket "no show" had no residual value in the US?

All tickets retain value for the validity of the ticket, which is a year from date of issue and in some cases, a year from date of first travel.

A change fee (150usd) plus any fare difference would be paid when the ticket is finally used.