Refundable then Non-Refundable
 

Hi. I'm new here and not sure where to post this, so here goes...

I book a lot of travel for a corporate client, and their travel plans change a lot. I try to book refundable airfare because of my clients' uncertainty a couple weeks in advance. I'm wondering if when my client firms things up and commits to the travel, if I then cancel the refundable ticket a few days before, then buy a non-refundable since the plans are not likely to change. Is this a loophole to get a better fare? Do the airlines frown upon this? Any repercussions?

To be clear, want to buy a refundable ticket in advance. then when client is not likely to cancel, I then get a refund of original ticket and purchase the same flight as non-refundable a few days before. Even if the fare goes up, it will still likely be cheaper than original refundable ticket.

Lower-cost non-refundable tickets are not always available when it's time to book. If they are still for sale, then do it.

You run the risk of the tickets not available to purchase and losing your client.

Not worth it especially since you're not paying for the "refundable rates" anyways.

In my experience, which includes many years of frequent business travel, the savings on advance purchase non-refundable tickets outweigh the need to occasionally having to eat their cost. Non-refundable tickets purchased close to the travel date do not offer nearly the same savings: airlines know people's plans are usually pretty firm by then, and airline yield management people are not stupid. Besides, many non-refundable tickets have some residual value toward another flight on the same airline, so they're not a total loss even if plans change.

Your clients' likelihood of a change in plans may not be the same as mine was, but for what it's worth, I would not advocate buying refundable tickets in this situation.

Since you book travel for some corporate client, I would assume that you're an official travel agent. As such, there are probably rules and ethical standards which you must follow. You shouldn't be asking advice about how to handle a major client on an anonymous internet website.

You didn't say what routings these flights are. Domestic or international. There are often non-refundable tickets with relatively small or no change fees. Thee tickets can be exchanged for a new ticket on any routing the airline flies, not just the same routing that was originally booked. Just because trips gets cancelled is not a good reason to avoid nonrefundable tickets.

Also, although most trip insurance policies cover cancelling only because of medical issues, there are some that allow you to cancel for any reason.

Both of the above would, in many cases, be much less expensive than waiting until the last minute. As stated above, last minute nonrefundable tickets often do not save very much over refundable tickets and in fact, also as stated above, are often not available.

Some carriers also look carefully at the practice that you describe and when you do it routinely, give you the boot.

It all depends on the carrier, the route and the fare difference.

It sounds to me that what you are saying is not that you are a travel agent, but that you are a professional who is retained by a client who reimburses your travel and that you strive to keep travel costs down for your client.

You really need to discuss all of this with your client. If you do need to cancel a non-refundable ticket, you are generally left with a credit for future use. That can be an accounting nuisance for you and for the client.

If you are looking at significant savings perhaps this is worth a lot of discussion and thought. If not, ask yourself how much effort.