A friend asked me: “I need to cancel an American MileSaaver Award as plans have changed, is there a fee to get the miles back?”
American has fees associated with changes to an award and redepositing the miles for most members. The explanation of the fees is explained in a fairly dense description on the aa.com website. I’ve highlighted the basic facts here to (hopefully) make it easier to read. The main exception is that the fees are waived for Executive Platinum (EXP) members using miles from their own account. See the table below for a breakdown by status level:
| Award Change | Executive Platinum Members | Platinum Members and Gold Members | All Other AAdvantage Members |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ticketing award less than 21 days from departure | No Charge | No Charge | $75 |
| Change the origin or destination of a MileSaaver award ticket | No Charge | $150 | $150 |
| Change the origin or destination of an AAnytime award | No Charge | No Charge | No Charge |
| Change to a different type of award. This requires reinstatement of miles and booking a new award. Reinstatement fee: | No Charge | $150 | $150 |
| Close in change: A confirmed change to your outbound departure date (for both AAdvantage MileSAAver and AAnytime award tickets) where the new outbound date is within 21 days of the original booking date | No Charge | No Charge | $75 |
The most confusing fee above is probably the last one. The strange wording of “original booking date” has some people confused. This was simply to stop people booking awards outside the 21 day window and then calling back the next day to move the departure to within 21 days avoiding the $75 fee shown in the first row above. Otherwise, if the departure date is after 21 days from the original booking date, then date changes are provided at no charge.