Originally Posted by
jordyn
The airlines really give you no incentive to cancel in advance, and there's some advantage to just no-showing. If there's a big schedule change or an operational problem the day of the flight, it should be possible to get a refund on the ticket.
The incentive to cancel prior to departure is the ability to retain unused ticket funds minus a change fee. The funds would otherwise be forfeit if the ticket isn't cancelled. That's a pretty substantial advantage is my book.
It's true that there's no incentive to cancel far in advance.