This was always a one way ticket. I ended up flying the refundable ticket in it's entirety and did not fly the nonrefundable ticket at all (either leg of the one way ticket TXL->AMS->CDG).

The mobile app message may have been a red herring. I suppose I could have tried checking in to see what happens (see if it gives me a boarding pass) but I didn't want to take up a seat that I knew I wouldn't use (in case the airline decides to give it up for standby, etc.).

Yes, I could have bought a refundable ticket at the airport last minute but flights were pretty full since it was a Friday night. The 5:30 flight was full the day before when I was buying my refundable ticket and the 6:50 flight that I was on had low availability and I did not want to be stuck unable to fly to AMS.

I did not fly on the nonrefundable fare at all (either leg) so I did not consume the seat reservation or the check in bag.

The fully refundable fare that I did consume seemed to include both an assigned seat (as a seat was assigned to me when I bought the ticket) and included 1 check in bag.

I will make an attempt to expense both flights at work and will see if my expense report is accepted. It's over budget though for this flight so I do have to use some credits that I had built up by spending less in the past on previous flights but I suppose that's fine.