Mysterious refund from American Airlines?

Have you contacted American Airlines to inquire about the reason for the refund? If you haven't, I would certainly start there.

Four months ago I booked through KLM and traveled 18 February - 25 March.

A few weeks ago I got an email stating that my refund was under consideration. I thought it was some sort of hacking trick so deleted it.
A week ago I got $13 from KLM
Like you, something to do with a seat selection.

There are some recent 'suggestions' from the transportation dept that airlines not charge fees for guaranteeing that families with children sit together. I don't think they are 'requirements' yet, but I did read that many airlines are complying as of Feb of this year. So, it may have something to do with that, but not sure. You could google it to see which airlnes are complying to see if yours is one of them.

Thanks for your help and suggestions.

Nancy, I finally bit the bullet and called AA. It took me a while to get through. The agent was not a native English speaker and was very hard to understand. But the mystery is solved! Apparently, there was a change to our itinerary and one of the legs will be on a different plane. Since they had to assign us new seats, and we didn't get to choose, we were refunded for that one segment.

Interesting! I would definitely go on their website and check the map, if you haven't already. The seat numbers may be the same but it could be bad. We were unpleasantly surprised on our first overseas trip to have been moved from an adjoining aisle and window, to a DREADED MIDDLE and aisle in a bigger plane.

KC, the seat map looks fine -- window, middle, and aisle for all legs. Whew!

We recently received several refunds from United for one hundred dollars to much less. I checked our United accounts and found no answers there.
We have several upcoming flights booked with United.

Maybe rebates will be a new marketing strategy?!? Imagine if an airline paid you to accept a certain seat, or rewarded a family for splitting up during a flight.

Or if a timer built in to the seatbelt buckle counted how long it stayed attached, and you got a bonus refund after the flight for keeping it buckled for a certain length of time? Maybe not hundreds of dollars, but carrots are nicer than sticks!

That's a clever strategy, Suki!

Same here for 3 American flights I helped friends buy a few months ago - about $50/e. I have no clues why though.