Every option the agent weighed
Refundable Main Cabin (Economy) American Airlines · eligible
Cash-refund and zero-fee terms established via secondary sources; live fare could not be read, so cannot be selected as best on price.
- cash refund: Yes — refundable Main Cabin fare refunds full amount to original form of payment, at any time before departure, which covers cancellation ≥14 days before departure flyinguidelines.com not the brand’s own page
- cancellation fee: $0 — refundable fares can be cancelled without a fee upgradedpoints.com not the brand’s own page
- price all in: Not established — no live fare could be read for AUS→ORD, 24–27 Oct 2026 no source not the brand’s own page
Unresolved: price_all_in
Refundable / Flexible Economy United Airlines · eligible
Cash-refund and zero-fee terms established via a directly-read secondary source (NerdWallet); live fare could not be read.
- cash refund: Yes — refundable Economy (Flexible Economy) fares can be cancelled any time before departure for a full refund to the original form of payment nerdwallet.com not the brand’s own page
- cancellation fee: $0 — United dropped change/cancellation fees on eligible economy fares; refundable fares cancel without penalty nerdwallet.com not the brand’s own page
- price all in: Not established — no live fare could be read for AUS→ORD, 24–27 Oct 2026 no source not the brand’s own page
Unresolved: price_all_in
Anytime / Business Select (Choice Preferred / Choice Extra, 2026 naming) Southwest Airlines · eligible
Cash-refund and zero-fee terms established via secondary sources, with a noted caveat that a prior change to the ticket removes refundability; live fare could not be read.
- cash refund: Yes — Anytime/Choice Preferred and Business Select/Choice Extra fares refund 100% to the original form of payment on cancellation before departure, provided the ticket was not first modified fondtravels.com not the brand’s own page
- cancellation fee: $0 — no cancellation fee for these fare types fondtravels.com not the brand’s own page
- price all in: Not established — no live fare could be read for AUS→MDW/ORD, 24–27 Oct 2026 no source not the brand’s own page
Unresolved: price_all_in
Wanna Get Away / Basic (lowest economy fare) Southwest Airlines · rejected
Established that outside the 24-hour risk-free window, cancellation converts the fare to a non-cash flight credit, failing the required cash-to-original-payment condition for a cancellation made ≥14 days before departure.
- cash refund: No — non-refundable; cancellation yields a flight/transferable credit, not cash, except within 24 hours of booking swamedia.com not the brand’s own page
- cancellation fee: $0 fee to cancel, but refund form (credit, not cash) fails the requirement regardless of fee swamedia.com not the brand’s own page
- price all in: Not established — no live fare could be read for AUS→MDW/ORD, 24–27 Oct 2026 no source not the brand’s own page
Unresolved: price_all_in
What this customer remembered
- Earlier this year the household cancelled a different subscription service and was given account credit instead of a cash refund, which it did not want.
Confidence
Tested: part of a frozen experiment with a baseline.
Provenance
Every journey run on the live web. Every source, belief and decision published. Scorer version 4; model cost 0.45 USD.