He was waiting to hear from a colleague about whether to cancel for sure, but when he called the Elite desk, they told him he could make a new booking and the remaining amount would be "refunded" to him. He knew it wasn't correct, but wasn't ready to cancel outright at the time. The trip is still on hold, and he's not cancelling until he absolutely has to. He was just trying to find out what happens if/when he does. The answer didn't make sense. Maybe when the CSR said "refunded" she meant through a travel certificate. He didn't get a lot of details at the time.

Seems to me that your ticket should have been handled that way, Jrzyshawn -- the non-refundable amount could still be considered non-refundable, and only eligible for use on another ticket or two, or three, or however many it took for you to exhaust the value. What difference does it make to Continental? They've got the money already. That's the part I really don't understand.