Originally Posted by
Lux Flyer
The issue of the endorsement changing doesn't change the underlying fare rule. When they had to reissue the ticket for an even exchange they have to manually store the fare. Part of that process is putting the endorsements in, and if they didn't look at the fare, or the previous ticket when endorsing it, it's not uncommon that they just chose the nonrefundable endorsement out of habit since that is the case in the majority of even exchanges they do.
Sure, but a refundable fare on a ticket endorsed non-refundable is
prima facie non-refundable. The default assumption would be that a passenger used credit from a non-refundable ticket to book the refundable fare. If this ticket needs to be refunded, the refund department is going to have to trace the ticket back to the original fare in order to see that it was endorsed incorrectly. If they fail to do that -- and the refund department often seems to have quick 'deny' fingers -- they'll refuse the request and escalation will be necessary.