Calculating refund of return only
 

I have asked for a quote for the return flight of my ticket, I have already used the first part. However the customer service has sent me a quote without any details. The original ticket was around 1200 CHF, the cancellation fee is 150 CHF, and the refund is 100 CHF.
When I look at the booking details I haveFare
: CHF 740.00
Taxes
:
CHF
58.70 CH
CHF
40.40 G3
CHF
12.70 I5
CHF
43.10 WY
CHF
41.35 AU
Carrier surcharges
:
CHF
329.20 YR
CHF
2.40 YR
Total Amount
: CHF 1267.85
I understand that the return might be cheaper, but I don't understand why the refund is only 100 CHF, I was expecting more in the range of 200-300 CHF. Can anyone explain how this is calculated? Unfortunately I can't reply to the CX email.

UPDATE: Called the contact center and they do not know how the refund is calculated and cannot point to any documentation explaining which parts of the fare are refundable. What a lack of transparency! Why does Cathay not have a refund rules somewhere on their website? I can't find anything.

Not claiming to be an expert, but the refund should be against OW fare instead of 1/2RT.
If the all-in is CHF1200 for RT, it may be that the OW is CHF800. Minus CHF250, it sounds about right?

Yes, when you request a refund, it works like they try to price the segments you have already flown and figure out the difference. So it is normal that you wouldn't get a lot of money back.

You may be able to just cancel the reservation (to avoid the noshow fee) and keep the ticket intact, and when you need to fly, you could give them a call to get them change it onto your preferred date (change fee will apply, and subject to the ticket's conditions)

Indeed, CX will recalculate what you flew (or if you hadn't flown yet the cost of the ow ticket) and refund the difference between those two minus the cancellation fee. It's not so bad that you actually get a refund at all as often the balance may be negative as OW flights tend to be so much more expensive than returns.

An alternative, if you have more trips planned, would be to change the return part of your ticket to a date when you can use it in which case you'd be charged the change fee plus any difference in fare which is likely to be far less punitive unless you breach some of the original ticket conditions.

Thank you folks for the feedback, that makes more sense. I thought about changing the return date but the change in fare is higher than buying another OW with other companies, and at least I can reinvest the refund in the new ticket.

But really, how come there are no documents explaining how the refund is calculated?

As explained above, this procedure is standard with all airlines. No airline would provide you detailed documentation. The telephone reservation agent has no access to the detailed work done by the pricing department.

They reprice the ticket at the cheapest (if they are generous) OW fare, say X. Then they refund 1267.85 - X - 150.
In your case this is equal to 100.

The only additional information you could ask for is the fare bucket they have used, if you are really interested (like HLAROSW8). But you are quite lucky to get anything back, as the OW fare is often higher than the RT fare. Hence, I don't think that getting that information would help you dispute the 100.

Thanks again for the clarification. I already have the fare bucket, which is VLARRSW8, but have no clue to figure out what that means. Do you know where I can look it up?

IF you do fly the same returns more often AND you can plan on that AND the reversed route is cheaper than the current route, you may want to consider purchasing a return from your outbound location to home and have the currently useless return act as the final return-home on the new booking. That way, the changed date will be much further in future and the chance lower priced fare buckets are available is much higher. Because the "being away" period might be longer, ie now between trips, the ticket pricing might be higher due to minimum stay requirements. IIRC, for CX, it becomes relevant from 3 months (J class), though your mileage may vary.

Regarding the documentation not available: These price calculations are the MOST IMPORTANT business secrets of an airline, so they are not going to publish this .....

Good luck.

VLARRSW8 seems to be for your initial return ticket (third letter from last is R for return rather than O for a one way).
Bucket V is a dirt-cheap economy fare bucket. I don't think that you can buy V in one way (VLAROSW8 does not exist).
I don't know your final destination, but the one way K fare is more expensive than the return .

One way to get more information is to suscribe Expert Flyer; you can be a trial member. Then click on "fare information", include your itin and CX and you will see the fares. Then click on the third to last column for your fare.
But this is very complicated as EF only gives the base fare. You would have to reconstruct the various taxes than can be credited for the legs you don't use, as well as the carrier surcharge.
I suggest that you trust us and accept that you are getting a generous refund quote from such a cheap fare.
My personal guess is that CX is giving you a generous 100 to avoid the uncertainty of having you simply no show (and potentially lose the sale of a seat) if they announced 0.refund.

Thank you I appreciate the info. It's just ironic how "dirt-cheap" and "generous" can be very subjective terms!

I am assuming your destination is in Australia since the tax code for WY/AU are used by arrival/ departure taxes Australia. The oneway K fare (KLAROSW8) from ZRH to Australia seems to be CHF741 (from ITA Matrix) so it is basically same as the fare you have paid.

The other parts of refund include roughly half of the YQ (~CHF175), Australia departure tax (Coded AU CHF41.35), half of the Hong Kong Airport Construction Fee (G3) which is around 20CHF, and half of the Hong Kong Airport Passenger Security Charge (I5) which is around 6CHF. After adding up these components and take out the cancellation fee of 150 CHF will give you roughly 100CHF. I hope it gives you the idea how the 100CHF is determined.

Thank you, this definitely helps.

Refund of last leg of a four leg business class trip (PEK-BCN, ZRH-PEK)
 

Hope there is no harm in chiming in here, otherwise happy to create a new thread, but rather similiar, so perhaps this helps others to find things in one place:

I have flown three of the four sectors of this booking. Booking class is 'I' (fare bucket: IAARRYD8). Have tried two times now to get hold of Cathay from mainland China, and waiting times are just nuts (in excess of 15 min). So it was faster to type this here, then try again. If anyone has any ideas what the change conditions are and how much I can expect to pay for change, cancellation or refund, please enlighten me. (plus change might not be possible, as I am unlikely to do this trip for a while, at lest not before the 12 months ticket validity)

From the title, it suggest that you have flown PEK-HKG-BCN and ZRH-HKG but not yet HKG-PEK, although you are now in PEK. Is that correct?