American Airlines Is Officially Eliminating 24 Hour Holds

Several days ago, I posted about the possibility of American Airlines eliminating their free 24 holds on paid reservations, for those made more than 7 days out.

Well, that news is now official via an email I received from an American spokesperson:

We’ve finalized our 24-hour refund offering. Starting tomorrow (Friday, April 1) we are switching to a 24-hour refund instead of 24-hour hold. Customers will still see the 24-hour hold option on aa.com for the time being. 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.

There’s no change for booking AAdvantage award tickets – the hold option remains for those.

We’re making the switch to minimize the customer confusion that arose sometimes because our policy was different from those of other airlines.

Personally, I’m not happy at this update:

• There was no need to follow up and cancel a reservation and risk forgetting.
• I could previously put a reservation on hold without having a credit card in front of me.

Once again, American moves in the way of other airlines…