American Airlines tightens the belt on rebooking credits

If you regularly fly American, get ready for some updated ticketing rules. The airline announced that it is prohibiting the “automated re-shopping” of tickets. 

What is “automated re-shopping” anyways?

Automated re-shopping is “the use of a robotic of automated process of re-booking a ticket for the same passenger and itinerary on American with the purpose of taking advantage of a reduced fare when there is no change fee payable to American for the administrative costs of the re-booking.”

Basically, travelers, agents, or any other third parties are no longer allowed to rebook fares to get a lower rate while avoiding a change fee.

Why the change?

During the pandemic, many airlines (including American) introduced policies where you could change or cancel your flight and not be charged a change fee. If you bought a more expensive ticket, you’d pay the difference, but if your flight ended up being cheaper, you’d either receive a refund or a travel credit. 

It was largely advantageous for travelers who kept a keen eye on ticket prices, set pricing alerts on their flights, or even wrote their own programming to track airfare. However, airlines are tightening their belts now that travel has certainly bounced back from the pandemic. I expect we shall see even more pandemic-era policies get revoked in the months to come.