Originally Posted by
olwagner
I would like to explore the "refund" path. While I can not get a cash refund. I wonder/would like to get a credit for future flights. Would that be possible with fees of no less than $100? I could not find the info on that.
That is technically what is happening when you rebook it as an Illinois-SNA ticket - they're canceling it, deducting the change fee, then using the residual value as a credit against the new Illinois-SNA ticket, and the $200 'fee' is the difference in the fare of the new ticket and the credit from the original ticket.
Basically, if you were to pay cash to book an Illinois-SNA-LGA ticket, it would cost $300 more than an Illinois-SNA-Illinois ticket. The residual value of the ticket is the same in both cases. You should be able to get that value as a credit for future travel on NW if you'd rather not fly NW for your upcoming itinerary, for example, in favor of flying on an airline that books airfares on a one-way basis so you can book Illinois-SNA-LGA without paying extra for the open jaw.