Cancel outbound of RT?
 

Since spending 70+ minutes on the phone to reservations is trying my nerves, I thought I might as well ask here so as to not waste my time only to discover it doesn't work: is it possible to cancel the outbound of a round-trip ticket?

I'm booked YYJ-YVR-HNL next week, and now need to be in HNL a few days earlier -- conveniently, on a day where AC isn't operating flights to that destination. I want to keep my return segments. Does this work, or am I going to have to cancel the whole ticket and rebook everything separately? (These are T+ fares.)

As far as I understand it, if you don't turn up for the outbound leg of a journey the return is cancelled. You might be able to get the return leg turned into a one way but that is likely to be very expensive.

Yes... but good luck getting it done properly without the usual call centre staff. Might be do-able with the website.

You have to cancel the outbound, pay the penalty and add another leg somewhere (doesn't have to be HNL) so that the value of the balance of your ticket has a open segement to use in the future, for one more penalty. You might have to pay an adcol if you get a bad agent you can't find a matching fare basis $ wise. Meaning, for example, you can't put in an L fare for less $ when you are already booked in H. If you do that the system will exchange you down to the lower fare and you will be out $. If you don't care about your outbound segs value, then just pay the penalty to change.

Good luck.... u will need it

I agree..

It will be extremely difficult without the help of AC staff.. you'll have to try and access the skeleton crew..

Cancelling and rebooking on the website could be an option..

Try calling late at night before close.. that's when its not as busy..

Just for reference (so that future searchers will not be perplexed): according to the two reservation agents I spoke to today, be aware that you will forfeit the value of the canceled segments and have to eat a change fee.

In my case it was better to cancel the entire itinerary so as to better preserve the value of the original booking. Fortunately, the fares for the return segments hadn't changed much (if at all) since the original booking.

The lesson, it would seem, is to just book everything as a one-way.

I was about to reply in a similar fashion as the previous posters have, ie good luck, get a good agent, let him/her know that you understand the mechanics of face construction, and go for a co-operative solution.

The alternative, as it appears you have chosen, is to rebook, which is probably a lot less painful.

Or to do as I said... take you A to B to A ticket and turn it into a B to A to B (or another destination) which will leave you with an open segment to apply against in the future. But yes, if you new fare is lower or almost the same this might not be a perfect plan. Generally works well with those non-ref exec lowest fares.