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American Airlines Ends Free 24-Hour Reservation Holds

Kaeli Conforti
Kaeli Conforti
Contributor
After spending seven years in New York City working as a full-time writer and editor, Kaeli sold everything, left her cushy NYC apartment, and embarked on a solo travel adventure through Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam, and Thailand before doing the Working Holiday Visa thing in Australia and New Zealand. Kaeli then spent several months freelance writing and editing full-time as she continued to travel around Australia and New Zealand, before returning to the U.S. in March 2020. Her writing has been featured by The Points Guy, Forbes, and Budget Travel, as well as CNN Travel, Fox News Travel, NBC News Travel, Yahoo Travel and, Huffington Post Travel. Her greatest adventure: a two-month solo road trip through the Northern Territory and Western Australia while updating the Outback chapter of Fodor’s Essential Australia guidebook. Follow along with all her travel adventures on Twitter and Instagram: @KaeliTravels and her new website, KaeliTravels.com.
March 31, 2016
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2 min read
American Airlines AA Featured
American Airlines Ends Free 24-Hour Reservation Holds
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It's official: As of April 1, American Airlines is forgoing its free 24-hour reservation holds in favor of a 24-hour refund policy similar to that of other airlines. According to an AA spokesperson, the decision was made in response to confusion from customers:

The switch to a 24-hour refund instead of 24-hour hold goes into effect tomorrow, Friday, April 1 (no, it's not an April Fool's joke). Customers at AA.com will also still be able to use the 24-hour hold option for the time being, although that is temporary. Our policy to meet the DOT rule, which applies to reservations made via a call center or AA.com (or any other American Airlines channel) is the 24-hour refund.
You'll now have 24 hours to change your mind after booking an AA flight.

AA hopes the new policy will eliminate customer confusion, since AA's 24-hour hold policy was different from what other airlines offer. The DOT requires carriers to permit either free 24-hour holds or free cancellations within 24 hours — as of tomorrow, American will offer the latter.

It's interesting to note that there will be no change in the current process if you're trying to book award tickets — you'll still be able to use the 24-hour hold option there.

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Featured image by Byron Totty