Originally Posted by
Lori_Q
I don't understand. If I buy a ticket for someone, using my own credit card, I can still cancel the ticket and receive the refund to the original form of payment (my card).
Only if you buy a refundable ticket. Most people buy non-refundable tickets, in which case you pay a $150-$250 change fee and receive a credit for the value of the ticket in the name of the passenger on the ticket.
How can it "belong" to the person whose name is on the ticket?
The credit remains in the name of the passenger, so it "belongs" in the sense that you can't use it (absent some tricks) on any travel not involving the party named on the original ticket.
I've bought & refunded many tickets for my family members, and I've never been questioned about my right to "take" the tickets away from the person named on the itinerary.
Are you buying refundable tickets?
This situation has a whiff of cheapness combined with revenge. If the OP's friend is really concerned about the value of the ticket -- rather than the desire to exclude the wife from the trip that he still wants to take -- he will have to pay a change fee anyway, so he should just cancel everything and get a travel voucher that he can use however he wants. If a divorce is pending, this is indeed "small change" compared to the rest of the financial matters they will be managing in the near future.
And if they're married, it really is her ticket.