I'm looking for similar advice - I'm caught in a heck of an extenuating circumstance (my one-way emigration flight to Europe on March 31 got cancelled), I need to figure out the best way to get to Europe right now, but I really can't afford to book something that later gets cancelled for credit.
If this is the right forum I can start a thread, but if there's a more appropriate forum I'd love to know which one. Looking through the listings I'm really not sure.