Originally Posted by
Far Siren
Based on my own limited experience:
1. Nothing will happen if you no show.
2. What you get will be minimal, probably the taxes and other govt fees and maybe a small amount, if any, after the fare is re-priced.
3. Consider cancelling for a future travel credit which has more restrictions than the AC wallet but may yield a better amount compared to a cash refund. There is more info in the forum in various threads about travel credits.
As a data point, I had a EU-NA-EU roundtrip which cost around $3200 (J outbound, Y latitude on the return). I could not take the return flight as scheduled. If I wanted to cancel for a cash refund back to my credit card the amount quoted was around $200. For travel credit it was around $900. The Concierge said that using the $900 travel credit will have some restrictions such as only being usable on a NA-originating ticket to Europe (RT or one-way), but not necessarily on the same city pairs. And it has to be used within a year of the original ticketing date.
Thanks. Considering a FTC, but the restriction on a year of original ticketing date may mean it ends up being a mileage run or just a "forced" trip to Europe (no plans in the future right now). Though it's good to know it looks like you get something back in the cash option, even if it's pennies compared to the ticket price.
Originally Posted by
Tax Dude
Another thought, also based on my limited experience. Book the return for sometime far in the future and hope for a schedule change that lets you cancel without penalty. I just did that with the return portion of a AKL-YYZ-AKL ticket from last year. I wanted to re-book using points and when I looked a couple of months ago the refund amount was about 1/3 of what I’d paid for that portion. There was a minor schedule change (15 min?) and I was able to get a full refund. I’ve had that happen with ex-UK tickets as well.
As others indicated, AC tightened the rules around minor schedule changes, but in the spirit of this: something I considered as well. My current return is about as far out as the calendar will let me book, and probably the best case scenario if there's a schedule change and I can just reject the change entirely (even if it's sans change/cancellation fee).
Deliberate choice to fly AC because if I'm spending cash anyways, I may as well get the miles/benefits with it - and yes, YYZ is my final destination. Points redemption back wasn't chosen mostly due to wanting to save points for future travel (though I appreciate the suggestion).
A lot of this was looking at the price and thinking: $2000 economy ticket, vs. $1400 "premium economy" ticket? Admittedly a direct flight was part of the consideration, I've had not-so-wonderful luck in the last year with flights involving connections.