Originally Posted by
MikeBOS
It was non-refundable and the only changes allowed (for a fee) were date changes. The fare could not be used as a credit toward a ticket to another destination. I will not be able to return to the same destination within a year of the original ticket purchase, so, upon instructions from eclaimsline, I cancelled the ticket. On cancellation the only refundable portion was the taxes, minus a cancellation fee which was greater than the taxes. All of this was in the language describing the fare which I sent to them, which is the only documentation BA will provide. Despite all the documentation, they insist that they need specific wording from BA that BA will not provide, so I am stuck...
Based on my experience, yours and other reports, they want to ensure that the carrier (or hotel, or whatever) isn't making an exception to go beyond their stated policy and isn't giving you something in return. Sometimes, airlines, hotels, etc. will go beyond their policy and provide a refund where they don't have to, or a hotel will provide the credit for a different night. They don't want to be doling out cash for someone to be reimbursed twice, which in addition to being fraudulent is almost certainly agains the terms of the agreement.
Example: I've had three occasions in recent memory (i.e., the last few years) where I've had to cancel a hotel beyond the time where I was allowed a full refund. The case I talked about above, and where I successfully made the claim, is the only time I wasn't refunded by the property directly, despite the fact that by policy, they shouldn't have. Once was a weather issue and we couldn't get to where we were supposed to be. I can't recall the other time. But both times it was done without issue. This time, they said they were going to have it looked at, and they came back with a no. They also offered, at the time I canceled, to waive the penalty if I delayed the arrival date, vs. outright cancelled (I.e. stayed/paid for the last 2 nights instead of all 3), but that wasn't going to work either. Now that I recall, eclaimsline did mention that if I couldn't provide a letter that I wasn't getting a refund, that they would be willing to contact them themselves, but I got mine so it didn't come to that.