Few points:
When I was dealing with a medical issue a few weeks back QF confirmed to me the refund charge is 5% of the base fare - 100% of taxes would get refunded. So you might need to HUCA, but right now looks like refund charge is < 200 USD.
Does anyone have a list of what jacks the YR/YQ charges? So far, it seems to be:
- any BA segment (using AT or IB out of CAI lowers it significantly)
- any QR segment
- any QF segment - especially longhauls