Welcome to FT. This is a common condition of most travel insurance policies, presumably gordies is trying to claim and his / her insurer requires a statement from the airline that the fare was non-refundable. The reason why what's written on the ticket presumably isn't sufficient is for circumstances where the airlines admits it is at fault and offers refunds to all customers, regardless of the terms and conditions of the fare (e.g. the BA LHR T5 fiasco).