Originally Posted by
KARFA
perhaps i wasn't clear.
if you cancel within 24 hours of booking, so within the cooling off period, you get everything back.
if you cancel with less than 24 hours to go before the flight you get nothing back.
if you cancel at any point in between, you will get all the avios back. the £35 cancellation fee will be deducted from the cash you paid and you will get any excess back. however if you paid less than £35 (like in the example in post 1) you just lose the cash you paid, you are not asked to cure the difference.
I believe the cancellation fee is capped at the RFS rate, so in the OP's case even if they paid £17.50 each the fee would be capped at £0.50 and they'd receive both the Avios and £17.00 back?