Flight question for those with experience booking with Chase Ultimate Reward points

[ruadisneyfan2]

We had a return flight booked on American Airlines in April 2020 for a cruise which of course was cancelled. We changed the flight to Feb 2021 which was slightly more money and paid the extra amount. This was for a different cruise, which was also cancelled. So now we have a $279 credit with American Airlines which expires the end of this year.
We are looking at flights to Miami but they only cost $40-50 each way. (No complaints here!) I am wondering if we spend $80 on our flights, would they still hold the additional $199 of unused credits? I would think they should but one never knows these days.

We could actually book another trip if they're willing to save our credits. If it's a one time use kind of thing, we might as well book a first class seat one way to burn up our credits.
I know I need to ask AA or Chase UR directly but it's past my bedtime and I'm hoping someone here can share their experience in using credits with AA.
TIA!!

 

[EACarlson]

If you log into your AAdvantage account do you see the credit? Then it would be with AA and have nothing to do with Expedia or Chase. AA T&Cs say that you will still have access to the residual value up to the expiration date, which AA says all voluntarily cancelled flights during the pandemic have been extended until 3/31/22. Here is their relevant webpage.
https://www.aa.com/i18n/customer-se...Repository&repositoryId=17345943&locale=es_US

 

[georgina]

I would double check on the expiration dates of the credit.

My experience with rebooking flights with UR during the pandemic has not been good, especially with United. Booked DD on a flight for summer 2020 which got cancelled, rebooked for Dec 2020 (paying more) which also got cancelled, though I could see the credit using her United confirmation #, I was told I had to rebook through Chase. What a pain. First time I tried Chase told me I could not keep any residual value if the flight was less, so I waited until we needed more expensive flights. Complicating matters was the fact that they consistently only showed the credit from the first set of flights, not the second set which was a higher amount so it always took a while on the phone to sort that out. Finally was able to use them a few weeks ago.

Have Alaska credits for DS in a similar situation with URs but at least the accounting is not as screwed up. Hoping to use them for Dec flights. I have been using pay yourself back with URs for everything I can and very hesitant to book flights with URs right now.

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

Thank you. I will look up my AA acct tonight after work. Chase said to be sure to book with them in order to waive the change fees. (aka: we want the commission)
AA website says in order to use old flight credits to just enter the ticket number, which I have. I don’t mind doing it that way if it will be very upfront with any change fees. I’m afraid to go through all the steps and to find out that they’re going to cancel our flight due to non-payment of change fees.
I would love to be able to use it for our March cruise

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

I have been using pay yourself back with URs for everything I can and very hesitant to book flights with URs right now.

I did a lot of Pay Yourself Back last year and now I’m saving points for hotel stays. I will only use UR points for travel that is fully refundable. Lesson learned. When dealing with airlines, it rarely helps to book through a third party, now more than ever with so much uncertainty with travel.

 

[EACarlson]

I did a lot of Pay Yourself Back last year and now I’m saving points for hotel stays. I will only use UR points for travel that is fully refundable. Lesson learned. When dealing with airlines, it rarely helps to book through a third party, now more than ever with so much uncertainty with travel.

I wouldn't use UR for hotel stays if you have any kind of status, that brings up even more issues than using them for flights does. Hotels look at 3rd party bookings from OTAs as the lowest of the low, the first ones to get walked and last to get any perks. Personally I only use UR to transfer to partners, Southwest most of the time but I might be onboard with Hyatt also.

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

I wouldn't use UR for hotel stays if you have any kind of status, that brings up even more issues than using them for flights does. Hotels look at 3rd party bookings from OTAs as the lowest of the low, the first ones to get walked and last to get any perks. Personally I only use UR to transfer to partners, Southwest most of the time but I might be onboard with Hyatt also.

We don’t stay at any particular chain often enough to rack up any status beyond basic membership.
We never travel for work. Maybe we’re just lucky but even booking the Hyatt inside MCO super cheap through Hotwire and having a late arrival many times, we’ve never been bumped.

We love SW and currently have a ton of points and a CP but they have awful flight times to MIA. From Philly it’s roughly a 2 hour flight non-stop. SW offers only connecting flights that have a total duration of 8-12 hours. That’s insane.