I recently planned a trip to San Francisco and bought both a ticket for myself and a friend. My friend can no longer go on the trip and I want to get her ticket transferred to another name. After talking to representatives from both the travel service I used and the airline (Continental), they both told me that the tickets are non-transferable. This leaves me in a terrible (though I'm sure not unique) situation where either me or my friend has to be out the cost of the ticket. The airline said that she could be credited the cost of another flight on the same airline, but a fee would still be applied as well. I am just wondering if there is any way to get around this or whether a name change on the ticket is even necessary for another friend to go instead. From what I understand, the airlines have this policy due to economic, and not security, reasons.

Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated! Thanks.