Really...don't mean to threadjack Sharky's May Dayz. Sorry Marc...
Maybe it's a case of Gordon and Scubatree being "AT" destination when their horrific loss happened. Mine, was prior to our flight out to Cozumel on the same day. We were told by AA that we should cancel the flight planned for that evening ( 10 hours from the time of the call). Then re-schedule the flight. That was fine, we were told that if we provided a death certificate (which takes 1-2 weeks to be issued) we would receive a refund for the $1100 that we paid for the cancelled flight. SO.... after the stress of that day, we called back to cancel and were told that there would be no refund, but a travel voucher would be sent. We were pretty pissed. This is $1100 we had out there. They wouldn't let us apply it to another flight or credit it back to our card. We cancelled, and now have to fight with them as to whether it will be a voucher or refund. At this point we had to book a new flight out of pocket without that $1100. Did AA offer us any kind of help or discount? No. The cheapest flight we could find the next week out was $1700 (on any airlines) Unless we wanted to do 20 plus hour layovers...then it was $1300. AA gave us a number to call about a refund vs. a voucher and guess what? It's an automated response to send an email request in, no person to person interaction possible. So bottom line? The plus is, they will give us $1100 back in some form with a death cert.....other than that in the way of assistance? Nada...zilch..