I would rather pay a change fee then fly on southwest.

Jmo.

dawnnoelm, you're sure entitled to your opinion. Avoiding a change fee is far from the only reason I like Southwest. I find that their customer service for one is top notch. American's customer service has varied greatly in my experience. Some of the people are great but some of them act like they are counting the days til retirement. I've been lied to more than once by people who work for AA (as well as by other airlines). I've talked to rude, condescending people at AA too many times, whose attitude seems to be "the customer is always wrong." At the PDX airport there are a few really sharp people who have worked for AA for years but they seem to me the exception not the rule, unfortunately.

Southwest, by contrast, consistently treats me well. I like their attitude and their efficiency. They seem like a well-run company.

I'm so happy for you Andrew, that you found a great airline and never had any sort of problems with them, but what does this have to do with the op's question?

Move on. No need to hijack this thread.

Yes we all agree Southwest is #1 in everything!

It's just that some of us chose not to fly with them because we are masochists and like to get abuzed. (and of course some of us need to fly internationally few times a year)

Is that what you wanted to hear? There, I said it!!!

AAFrequentFlyer: I'm so happy for you Andrew, that you found a great airline and never had any sort of problems with them, but what does this have to do with the op's question?

It's extremely relevant to the OP's original post. It's not just a matter of helping Austin recover the ticket, it's AA's crappy customer service that's the issue here. Austin shouldn't have to come here just because AA won't or can't help. What does that say about American Airlines? Why can't this be resolved with a simple phone call?

People should stop putting up with crappy service like Austin has received from AA here. Start supporting airlines that don't treat you like crap.

oh and we never saw complaints about the bus, ah...Southwest here on Fodors?

Heard from AA rep today and they are graciously giving me my credit back. Yay! They still say I didn't cancel, but "just this one time".... I thanked them and explained that I did cancel, and asked how do I prove that in the future if that happens again. I'll let you know their response. They have been very prompt.

Happy Trails, I do print all my reservations and cancellations. Thing is with this, there was no "cancellation confirmation". I believe the agent told me that all I needed was my orignial ticket number, which I kept.

I'm not surprised. Over the years, I've always found AA customer service nothing short of great -- despite what some others seem to have experienced.

I'm glad you've had great customer service with American. Mine has been a mixture of competent, great, and lousy. I've had AA people lie to me more than once. I hope it never happens again.

I am so glad to hear that you got the response from AA you wanted--finally. We switched from UA to AA years ago because we were so frustrated with the attitude and the service we were getting with UA. Our worst experience with UA was over a dining incident when we flew first class. Since then we always try to fly on AA and never on UA unless absolutely necessary. Even with their problems, I will stick to AA over UA anyday.

Austin - so glad you got it handled and I am not surprised. Over all dh and I have had excellent customer service from AA over the years.

Glad it worked out. When you use your credit, may you not be in the middle seat between Andrew and AA as they continue their SWA arguement.

I am curious who you booked through...?
Not all PNR's disappear after the reservation is cancelled. All of my PNR's have 'retention lines' in them that keep them active in the system for 6 months after the travel date.
Many travel agencies (including online) use retention lines but typically AA does not.
I never book directly with AA, so it's never a problem.
Regarding AA's service... Aside from the occassional surly airport employee and flight attendant, I have always had great luck with AA.

TTP - I booked myself, on line.

I used to fly AA all the time, when I would visit my hometown in upstate ny (Alb airport) since they were the only full sized airplane to do so. (SW is the only airline with a full sized plane to ALB) I never had problems. This has renewed my faith and I'll be a customer again, this time visiting DD in NYC...often.

Austin, I'm glad you got this AA issue with your ticket resolved. But I think it's a pity you had to go through so much just to get what was rightfully due to you. What a pain. They probably made it seem like they were doing you a favor "this time." Sounds like, if they make another mistake in the future at your expense, they won't be so generous.

Sounds like you have some unresolved issues with AA, Andrew. Someone reports a problem and ends up saying it was resolved, yet you STILL can't let go, acting like it was some fluke. Some of us have problems with ANY airline. As I indicated, I've flown AA almost exclusively for over 20 years and have had numerous issues, from death in family flights, to cancelled flights due to weather, to mechanical problems, to a missed international flight due to a late connector. AA customer service has handled all of them beautifully, even doing things like paying for my ticket in Europe, as I missed my own booked non-refundable flight on another airline, which they didn't need to do. They bent their own rules to allow me a last minute death fare which didn't meet the normal criteria.

I'm not asking you to fly AA, I'm just curious why you are so intent on running them down, particularly since by your own admissision you don't have a lot of recent experience flying with them. Austin used words like "gracious" and "very prompt". Why are you trying to make it sound like he wasn't treated more than fairly and never will be again?

Patrick just reminded me of a trip our family took a couple years ago when we were trying to redeem some miles on AA. We needed four seats between Maui and NC in the middle of summer, and considering the segments and number of seats, it was a difficult task. We were two adults and 2 kids, 10 months in advance. The AA agent could only find 3 seats and had us going through St. Louis (Maui-LA-Chicago-St. Louis-Raleigh). She spent a long time working on this for us, then finally said she did something that she wasn't supposed to, and had all four of us fly together, and put us on a flight direct from Maui to Chicago, and Chicago to Raleigh. This is why we continue to fly on AA.

If you book online then can't you cancel online? Bet you could have but you wanted to try to talk them out of the $100 fee. So you called and they said no on waiving the fee.

At that point you could have the agent cancel it. Or you could end the call and cancel it online.

I assume that you can cancel online and that there will be a response page displayed saying the cancellation was confirmed. Copy and past that webpage into a document or print it out.

If there is an e-mail response to the online cancellation put it in a "cancellations" e-mail folder (like NeoPatrick's hardcopy folder).

If you booked it online and cancel it (online or phone) go back into your account and make sure that the ticket doesn't appear on your list of future itineraries.

Do it all online.