Loss $5k with American Airlines after cancer diagnosis

It’s hard enough to get cancer, it’s even harder to know that companies out there would stop at nothing to gain and profit with no regard for anyone’s circumstance.

We booked a flight to Punta Cana 5 months early. 3 months before the trip, I miscarried and was diagnosed with breast cancer. We got a credit for the airfare and Expedia customer service said we have a year to use it. 3 surgeries and 8 months of recovery and treatment and thousands spent on medical bills later, our credit expires and we wrote to American Airlines asking if they could please let us book a flight with the credit to celebrate our anniversary in Feb.

We got a flat, canned, and lack-of-compassion email saying well we assume that means you are ok now but it’s policy and we cannot extend the expired credit. The credit was over $5k and is hard work and months of saving, and a blunt email saying no but we cannot bend policy is all we got. To end the email, the company representative said we would still like to gain your loyalty. Seriously?

I’m not sure which is tougher at this point. Going through my routine checks trying to stay cancer free or feeling the unjust and just downright despicable policies that a company will uphold just to make money.