maxswanson

Want to cancel a BA nonrefundable ticket 5 days later, only get tax back, any way to get more value? Something like change it for later use. Thanks!

LTN Phobia

If it's non-refundable and non-changeable, I'm afraid all you will get back is taxes and third party-imposed fees (e.g. passenger service charge from the airport).

You'll also probably incur an admin/service fee which will be deducted from your refund.

If the flight is changeable, then you will be able to change it to a later date but it will probably incur a change fee (and the fare difference if applicable) plus offline service fees if applicable.

billinghamn

Unclear when your non-refundable ticket is for? If it's a fair way in the future, and/or includes other airlines on a complex itinerary, then leave it to the last minute to cancel. If one of the airlines change the flight times, or cancel one of the flights, you may be able to cancel free of charge and get all of your money back.

Greenpen

Might depend on the reason you need to cancel. I am sure there have been threads reporting consideration being taken of serious events forcing change or cancellation. By serious I mean death or serious illness (of another, not the flyer himself).

However, non-refundable tickets are cheap and come with no refunds!

Land-of-Miles

Non-refundable BA tickets are very common, non-changeable (even for a fee) tickets are far less common. If you can make a change you have to work out whether the associated cost of that change is worth it. You can't move this ticket type to an open date either you would need to specify new travel dates at the time you make the change.

Globaliser

And if you don't know the new date you want to travel on, then change it to an arbitrary date a long way into the future, with a view to changing it again when you know when you want to use the ticket. This basically doubles the change fees payable, of course, so you have to take that into account.

If you do this, remember that the change involves you paying the change fee plus fare difference. So when you make the arbitrary change, move it to dates on which the fare difference is zero or as close as possible to zero.

Also, remember that most changeable tickets allow you to change flight, date, cabin and/or route in any combination - so this provision is quite close to keeping the original value of the ticket less the change fee.

af fp

Hello, I have the following situation where I need to cancel:
2 tickets which cost $1,500 each, fare is $500, taxes and fees $1,000 (about)
Cancellation fee: $500 each-way so it would be $2,000 I guess for 2 return tickets.
Should I cancel before the trip or wait for the ticket to void (missing the first flight) and hop to get back my whole $2,000 of taxes and fees? Should I check in online?
It does not seem worth changing the tickets given that the change fees are higher than the base fare (again it is $500 each way). Otherwise I could be interested in moving the whole trip three days later.

Thanks for your help if anyone knows.

London_traveller

Are you sure the cancellation fee is $500 per person each way? That doesn't sound right to me. Is that a fee from your travel agent?

If the cost of cancelling is greater than how much you'd get back then I'd just let the flights lapse. But, double-check the T&Cs to be certain what the fees and fare types are.

If you let everything lapse and try and claim tax back after then that won't work. I believe once the dates have passed, that's it.

af fp

Yes that's how I read it, it is a very cheap business class transatlantic. The cancellation fees are higher than the base fare. So I was hoping I could find a way to not cancel, just claim the taxes and fees back...

HarryKUK

Wouldn't the cancellation fee be the same as a no show fee? Is it ever better to just let it lapse than to proactively cancel it?

rossmacd

How about hoping for a schedule change or a flight cancellation that will allow for a full refund?

UKtravelbear

YOu need to check the breakdiwn of the 'fees and taxes' part of the fare to get a better indication of what you get back.

THe biggest part of the 'fees and taxes' is the BA 'carrier surcharge' / 'international surcharge' (aka fuel surcharge) and BA will not refund that so you are down to getting back any airport fees (passeger service charge) and GOVERNMENT imposed fees and taxes such as UK APD, US Transportation tax and odds and sods such as '9/11 fee'

JAXBA

You didn't mention what the change fee is, only the canx fee. Even if the change fee and the base fare are the same $500, you will still be keeping the value of the YQ, whatever it is, if you change. If you consider the fare+YQ, you may have, say, $800 (or more) of value that may be worth paying $500 to change to another date.

Can you tell what route and fare basis you have - we may be able to look up the fare rules and see if we have any other ideas.

MSPeconomist

If you move the flights to some dates which are cheaper than the original ticket, is the credit from the fare difference subtracted from the change fee you pay?

I suspect that most of the $1000 per ticket consists of carrier imposed fees, such as fuel charges, rather than government fees and taxes. Only the latter are refundable.

It's hard to see many circumstances in which you would gain by being a no show rather than cancelling the ticket.

MADPhil

The T&C usually say that the ticket is of no value if you fail to show up. The last one I bought also had the $500 change fee and the $500 per direction cancellation fee. The latter is a change, it used to be the same as the change fee.