The truism that possession is 99% of the law stands true here. Once the airline takes your money they don't want to give it back. If they want to charge you 200 bucks for a cancellation fee, there's not much you can do about it. To bring this topic one step further, why do airlines only give you one year to redeem your ticket, or you are completely out of luck? In this situation, they provided nothing to you and keep everything!