I know this is a stupid question, but here goes...

Is there any way to get money back on electronically purchased airline tickets? My husband bought tickets through American Airlines to Wyoming (from east coast) and paid $1400 a piece for them! Now we don't know if we can go. I can't believe they cost that much! And I can't believe we can't return. Does anyone know of any way around this?

Call the airline and check your ticket info again.
I've personally never heard of a $1400 non refundable ticket! Usually the nonrefundables are advanced purchase, heavily discounted fares! (I don't know how/why purchasing the ticket online would affect the refund policy, again unless it was considered a discounted web fare rate) If you can't get an actual refund (less a fee of
$100 or so each) perhaps you can use the amount (again, minus a fee)toward another trip...

$1400 each!!! Where were you going? If they were nonrefundable tickets then you can't get your money back, but the cost of the tickets can be applied to future travel. We had to cancel a trip once that we had purchased nonrefundable tickets for and paid a $75 fee each to apply the amount to new tickets. I think it has to be done within one year or other arrangements need to made. $1400 is a lot of money, are you sure they were nonrefundable tickets? I'd be on the phone to the airline.

As for getting around this, the only way I could think of is if the airline out of the goodness of their heart makes an exception for you. Not completely out of the question, but VERY unlikely.

Do NOT, under any circumstances, EVER allow your husband to handle travel arrangements for you in the future. That is a RIDICULOUS amount to pay.

$1400 does seem a little high, but then again could be first class and less than 7 days,,but to answer your question... the only time I ever had to cancel a trip happened to be with AA also, and "non-refundable" tickets purchased online to boot.
I called AA and maybe I just caught a Customer Service Rep on a good day..but she had no problem crediting my credit card for the full amount..this was over the 2000 new years however and I explained my concerns of traveling during that period do to the Y2K scare,,silly me duhhhhh!! so maybe they were cutting people a little slack.. worth a try to give them a call...the worst thing that can happen is they will tell you no , but in any case you will be able to use the $$ as a future credit at a later date..and for 1400 each, you can go far, if as the last post suggested, you find a better "travel agent" *W*

Can you get a doctors note saying you are unable to travel

The rate does sound ridiculous and should be refundable. Keep asking for the supervisor until you get satisfaction

Thanks folks. No these are not first class tickets. They are coach going from CT to Jackson Hole in Feb., if you can believe that. They were purchased directly from AA. I will give returning them a try. It sounds like I might have a chance.

If you don't have success with a refund/credit now, watch to see if they change anything in the schedule between now and February. If they change the schedule by (i think the minimum) is 15 minutes, you can call them and tell them that the new schedule doesn't fit within your plans and you'd like a refund.

Next time buy your tickets from one of the online ticket sites, I like www.itasoftware.com or orbitz

I have lots of experience dealing with non-refundable tickets. Unless you find an airline angel, you will not get a refund. What you will get is credit toward other tickets purchased for a domestic flight. However, they will charge you $100 for each ticket you buy using the credit. $1,400 for non-refundable tickets doesn't sound right to me either. Are you positive they are not full fare? To find the airline angel and get a refund, think of a story and keep at it. Maybe you will get lucky.

$1400 for an economy non-refundable ticket is totally unbelievable. My ex-wife flew around the world with 7 stops for less than $1400.

I have neven paid more than $650 to go from the West Coast to England.

I have to believe your tickets are full fare. If so they are refundable - perhaps w/ a service charge.

And I agree w/ NoneOfMyBiz - do not under any circumstances allow your husband to make any future travel arrangements. I am sure you could have done this trip for under $400 each.

I second the other posters who say: Never let your husband make airline reservations again! If you can get a doctor's note saying you can't travel due to some illness, AA will probably refund your tickets. It's worth a shot.

Hope American is more understanding than United. A few years ago my husband bought a RT ticket for himself to fly to bring his mother up to live in our area. He bought her a one way ticket. She was 92 years old and once he got down there her doctor told my husband that mother was not in good enough health to fly (serious heart problems) so he knew he had to rent a car and drive her back here instead. He called United to try and get a refund OR credit on his second half of his ticket and on her one way ticket and they said NO. No refund and no credit. Even with a doctor's letter.
That's the friendly skies of United.

I was looking in travelocity for fares for us, and out of curiosity, plugged your cities in while I was at it. The most expensive Hartford->Jackson Hole roundtrip ticket in February was $780, the least expensive $524 ($1049 for two). Are you certain you are remembering those figures correctly? Heck, you could even fly to London *next week* for $1,282 each!!

Under any circumstances, you should be able to apply your ticket price to a future ticket.