No show on first leg of basic ticket - return forfeited?
 

Hi folks,

My younger brother is flying to visit me in YHZ in a couple of weeks. He's on a basic economy ticket, flying from YYT to YHZ, and then the return is YHZ to YDF.

Turns out he won't need to use the YYT to YHZ leg, but still the return to YDF. If he is a no show for the YYT to YHZ leg, will his return to YDF be forfeited?

Thanks for the help!

If you no show for the first leg, assume everything is forfeited

That is the case for all tickets, not merely Basic.

It's one of the reasons to book oneways rather than return tickets, whenever feasible.

Because these are one way fares, I believe you can call in to voluntary forfeit the first leg (if booked on AC.com).

This way you will have piece of mind, and know it's taken care of.

This is unlike many international fares, which are round trip fares, and hence why missing the first leg means the entire ticket is forfeited.

Note: you cannot forfeit part of a through fare.

For the reader: Domestic and TB (and maybe "sun"?) routes have been sold as two one way tickets for... decades ... true of Canadian and US carriers.

I too theorize you could call in and forfeit the outbound half. Maybe even get credit for it. For sure they would tell whats what.

Yes, this is my experience. Within NA, attempting to cancel the first half of a round trip will trigger a change fee and repricing of the remaining segments at current fares. A good reason to go through the extra clicks to book two one-ways when your plans are not yet fully confirmed.

Interesting. AC refused to do this for me (domestic, Tango/standard fare) but I'll be the first to say that AC agents are consistently inconsistent. Certainly worth a call to cancel then and maybe even a HUCA if it doesn't work.

Wait wait.

If you cancel the outbound, you cannot just keep it for future use. The coupons would have to be used in sequence.

So the only way to do this would be to first change your outbound to something else that happens after the inbound, then cancel that.

You can cancel the inbound and keep for future use instead of forfeiting, but that also means the rules to use that "credit" will be different.

Generally, if you forfeit the outbound of a domestic/TB, you won't have to re-price since it will still technically consider the original POS as your original city. If the agent says it has to be exchanged and re-priced, no. This is .A special situation for domestic TB only.

Sun destinations are weird. Theyre priced as one ways, but to combine on a round trip basis. It's weird. But all you need to know is that you shouldn't assume it's like TDomestic/TB just because it's "one way".

It is not the pricing as one-ways which matters, it is that they are multiple segments on the same ticket. AC expressly requires that all segments be flown in the order issued. No different on other NA carriers for the most part.

One way pricing definitely matters.

Airline couldn't care less if you bought a one way ticket and forfeit it. They care if you buy a RT to use one way when they arent willing to sell you a cheap one way.

At the risk of getting even more off-topic, YYZ-SFO-YYZ is (or maybe "was", but the fares still look the same) significantly cheaper than either SFO-YYZ-SFO or two one-ways. Needless to say, I have:
SFO-YYZ
YYZ-SFO-YYZ
YYZ-SFO-YYZ
YYZ-SFO

I didn't investigate the exact cause of this. I know there are certain tax issues with "Canada within ~100 miles of the border" to US flights, as well as other implications. But the savings were significant enough that I booked non-sensible round-trips for three treks to Toronto.

So all I can say is do your research when booking. Sometimes a round-trip, even within North America, is cheaper. Sometimes it isn't.