Originally Posted by hypnodyno

Thanks for the candid response! Much appreciated.

I don't pretend that I'm in any way above the rules or that they don't apply to me, I knew what I was buying when I bought it. So that's fair, I don't expect them to deviate from our agreement any more than they'd expect me to; however, I was *hoping* someone in the airline might have a bit of empathy and offer a gesture of goodwill for the sake of public relations. Out of all things I could ask for, refunds/cancellations, itinerary changes, upgrades, a change of name on an as-of-yet not printed ticket didn't seem to be beyond the realm of possibility; especially as I've offered to pay for any administration costs (or whatever they want) to do it. Nevermind then!

Regarding the idea of cashing in the tickets: that's not something I've done before. Have you got any links I could read for understanding what I can and can't do? Could I cash in only my ticket and my girlfriend's, leaving the other two and then book an additional two passengers on the same flight? (Effectively giving me a 50% refund in credit for later use). Or is it all or nothing?

If I can't change the names, which sounds likely, then I'll be looking for the cheapest way to achieve the same goal of getting all my relatives over at the same time for as little additional expense as possible.