[gcbcw]

HELP!!!
My son had an American Airlines RT ticket from St. Louis to Hawaii (Dec 13,2008 - Jan 3, 2009). He only used the first leg from St. Louis to Hawai but did not return because he will having surgery in Hawaii. I paid over $1,400 for the RT ticket. One AA rep told me we could only use the return ticket back to ST. Louis, another told me we could use it anywhere but would need to pay $150 (penalty) and we would not get any refund if the ticket cost less. We might want to use it to go to LA, but the one way to LA is less than $300. Is there a way I can get a refund for the diffrence of the price of the ticket? I hate to have paid about $700 plus the $150 ($850) for a ticket to LA that actually costs less than $300. I tried to email AA but they don't respond.

[Silent Bob]

If the ticket is nonrefundable, then more than likely you can/should get a credit for the portion which you didn't use, then use it for another trip and possibly pay the penalty. If your son has documentation that he did have surgery, you can ask AA if you show proof of the surgery and when it took place, will they waive the change fee and just reissue the ticket, and give you a credit on the difference. That's normally how I do it and it usually works with no issues. But I don't deal with AA that much, so I'm not sure how they will handle it. Best of luck to you.

[PHXFlyer]

Wether or not your son can use the full value of the return portion of the ticket depends on the rules of the fare purchased. If it was a true round-trip ticket, then the full value of the ticket will only be good for use from the original destination back to the origin. More on that later. If the fare of the original ticket was comprised of 2 one-way fares then he should be able to apply the value of the unused one-way return to any other AA ticket subject to AA's T&Cs found here:

For partially used tickets the residual value may be used toward the purchase of a new ticket. The residual value will be the difference between the fare paid and the fare for the transportation actually used as determined by the applicable rules less any charges or penalties defined in the rules of the fare that was purchased. All travel on such reissued tickets (or subsequently reissued tickets) must be completed no more than one year from the first date of travel on the original ticket or sooner if required by the tickets' fare rules.

(emphasis mine)

Now back to the definition of "full value." If this was a true round-trip fare, you can ask AA to re-fare the ticket as if it were purchased one-way and apply the residual value to a new ticket. Since round-trip fares are usually less than 2 one-ways don't expect the credit from your original $1400 purchase to be half of the round-trip fare. It's quite possible that a one-way ticket to Hawaii may have cost you over $1000 to begin with leaving you with less than $400 but something is better than nothing.

Since I travel a lot I have access to several airline's published fare databases including AA's. If you can find the fare basis code on any of the confirmations sent to you by AA (fare basis codes are a string of alphanumerics which are assigned to specific fares, for example HX21ABC9) I can look it up for you and post the exact rules of that fare and estimate the residual value for you.