The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy begins,

This planet has – or rather had – a problem, which was this: most of the people living on it were unhappy for pretty much of the time. Many solutions were suggested for this problem, but most of these were largely concerned with the movement of small green pieces of paper, which was odd because on the whole it wasn’t the small green pieces of paper that were unhappy

American Airlines has spent a lot of time moving around little green pieces of paper. Starting this month though the paper burden has been reduced.

American Airlines has begun issuing evouchers for domestic refunds (50 United States, U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico) instead of giving out paper vouchers. Paper vouchers were challenging because they could be more easily lost, and if you didn’t do your ticketing at the airport you had to mail them in – and hope they wouldn’t be lost in the mail. Ticketing wouldn’t occur until the voucher was received.

Customers can check the status of their refund on prefunds.aa.com and will see that an email has been sent

The email will contain the voucher and PIN

American still uses little green pieces of paper for international refunds. Now if only the Barclays co-brand credit card companion tickets could be processed electronically.