American Airlines Took $3,674 From A Mom By Mistake, Refused Refund, Told Her ‘Stop Calling – We’re Too Big To Fix Every Mistake’
An American Airlines AAdvantage member redeemed 60,000 miles to travel from Okinawa to Tokyo to Los Angeles. This cost her 60,000 miles. She was bringing her baby with her as a lap infant, and that’s not free – generally for international travel the cost is 10% of a paid ticket, plus applicable taxes.
When she called American to book the infant fare (“INF”) she was quoted $386. She expected that, so she paid up. However she was also charged $3,674 for an additional paid ticket for herself at the same time. Oops!
- She saw this on the confirmation email and rang up American. They acknoledged right away that this was wrong, and she says that they promised a refund within 5-7 business days.
- She also wrote to customer service, and received an apology the next day, noting they were working to reverse the charge.
- No refund came after 7 business days, so she followed up. She reports being told that she needed to wait longer. She says she followed up several more times.
She went to travel on May 28. At check-in with Japan Airlines in Okinawa, she suspected she might has a problem. She asked the agent to check her in only on the award ticket, and leave the revenue ticket untouched. That request was not well-understood (or easy to understand, for that matter).
After the flight she called American, since she’d still never received her refund and American was improperly holding onto more than $3,600 of hers. The agent told her that indeed, JAL checked her in using the paid ticket… and this would mean things were going to take longer.
And, she says, they told her look “Ameircan Airlines is a really big company with a lot of customers and we can’t get to everyone immediately.” (It had been about four weeks at this point.) She also says they hung up on her.
She’s gone back and forth over the past two months, and now she says American told her they will not refund the $3,600 because Japan Airlines had billed American for the ticket – and that American would no longer respond to her.
Still waiting for my $3,674.11 @AmericanAir #travelscam #pointsandmiles #consumerRights @thepointsguy @garyleff pic.twitter.com/yxLzjUZTX1
— Kathryn (@Kathryn58698209) July 28, 2025
The passenger tagged me with her story on Twitter. I reached out to American Airlines, and they got back to me: “We are working now to fully refund this customer.”
It shouldn’t have taken this kind of escalation or this many months, but once she cut through the clutter of customer service the airline appeared to get it and is handling it.