Originally Posted by
Calchas
This is a refund after departure.
VOLUNTARY REFUNDS
Voluntary refunds will be computed as follows:
[..]
3.1.2 if a portion of a ticket has been used, refund will be made in an amount equal to the difference, if any, between the fare paid and the applicable fare for travel between the points for which the ticket has been used, less any applicable service charge and communication expenses.
(Resolution 737)
No suggestion that the passenger can somehow be liable to pay for not using a flight coupon, i.e., that an open flight coupon could have a negative monetary value.
(It's also not clear to me that a sum of one way fares will always be a valid way of calculating a cost of an itinerary. Several carriers no longer allow their fares to be used end-on-end in an unrestricted way.)
Well, yes, but this from the OWE rules:
16(b).3 For partially used transportation the refund if any will be the difference between the fare paid and the fare for the transportation used less the fee specified in (1) above.
"... difference between the fare paid and the fare for the transportation used ..." - seems to me that that is subject to two interpretations. If the fare for the transportation used is less than the fare paid, then the difference will be refunded (less any fees). If the fare for the transportation used exceeds the fare paid, then there would (could?) be a
negative refund, -- an additional collection.
Now, before anyone jumps down my throat about being overly legalistic, two points:
1. Yes, it's a legalistic argument. But when we get into Ts & Cs, we're talking legalities anyway, so we need to consider them.
2. To my knowledge, no airline has ever tried to make an additional collection on one of these tickets.
If anyone has been in this situation where the fare used was less than the fare paid, I'd love to hear how it was handled. Was there a refund? Did you request it? Did you just no-show the remaining segments? Please let us know!