As emcampbe mentioned, this is a good reminder for people, that if you are going to cancel a ticket, do so at the last minute, as a scenario like this would have been avoided. The only time you shouldn't is if you need to cancel a ticket with an airline because you are buying another ticket on the same airline that would overlap the flight times and you want to use your status for benefits on that flight.
I still think it's worth a try though OP, but doubt it would be granted.