Originally Posted by
B747-437B
This is not true. The cancellation fees are usually in addition to the forfeited fare in case of nonrefundable tickets. Indeed, I have often seen people pay higher change/cancel fees than the value of the ticket being changed/cancelled. So the OP would actually pay $50 (forfeited fare) PLUS an additional $75 (cancel fee).
You have seen people call to tell the airline they were not using the return portion of a ticket and the airline charged them $75?
Please give details, as I don't possibly believe any airline would charge you to tell them you can not use your flight (unless of course they figured out you did it to get around some fare rule or something).
If you were switching the ticket there would be a change fee, but just to cancel the flight there should be no additional charge.