On NWA.com's website, there's an option to cancel and refund. This will allow me a "refund" in the version of a credit. I'm not 100% sure of when I want to travel, so I want to just cancel the ticket as opposed to cancel and rebook.

I spoke with somebody at the Silver desk who told me I'd have to pay the $10 fee to rebook if I cancelled over the phone (or online) because then the ticket was no longer live so I'd have to call to rebook. She routed me to web support, who told me not to do anything - the ticket will stay live for a year if I don't show up.

Is this right? I thought you had to cancel prior to departure for a non-refundable ticket to have any value. I'd rather pay the $10 than lose the entire value of the ticket and I'm running into a time crunch as the flight leaves in 50 minutes. Urgent help requested!