Originally Posted by
Herb687
You are wrong on the final point. OP won't be hit with cancellation fees twice if the 2nd ticket is fully refundable. Only the first change fee from the reissue of the nonrefundable into a refundable will be forefited. Since there's no cancellation fee associated with the fare rules of the 2nd ticket (it's a fully refundable fare) there's no fee that can be assessed anyway.
Are you saying this from experience? Because I had a few of these tickets. If you had such experience, and were hit the cancellation fee only once, that's an exception rather the way it should be. Also, if you look carefully at your non-refundable ticket, there is a provision stating exactly what I was referring to, that as JDiver quoted non-refundability is indeed forever.