Originally Posted by
milohoss
Or am I missing something?
When I cancel a ticket, it's recorded as an unused credit for future use. When I decide when I want to use it, they credit the unused fare, less the $200 fee. I've never had to identify my future flight at the time I cancel.
So they don't "give you nothing" unless you managed to book a ticket for <$200.
The one seat you give up is very, very unlikely to actually result in a revenue ticket that wasn't going to be sold. If the flight's not sold out, they sold every ticket they could and leave with one more empty seat. If the flight's sold out, it's pretty likely someone is there on standby and will take your seat. It would a very rare circumstance where the flight was completely full, with no one on standby, and someone purchased a ticket between the time you cancelled and the time the flight departed.
Originally Posted by
Often1
I am just guessing that he's talking about a discounted domestic US ticket on one of the legacy carriers. Those often carry a $200 penalty to cancel or change. The balance or the whole thing subject to a change fee later is available for OP's use for another ticket within a year.
Key being "later". OP doesn't seem to understand this.