I could swear I read this everytime I bought a non-refundable ticket, but I might be wrong.

I thought that if you cancel a non-refundable ticket and then you went to purchase a new ticket and that new ticket was a refundable ticket that you could apply the value of the non-refundable ticket but that value remains non-refundable on the new ticket? (That's a mouthful).

I had a non-refundable ticket last week that I had to cancel. I purchased a new ticket yesterday that happens to be refundable. Two agents both told me that since my original ticket was non-refundable, I cannot apply it's value to the new ticket. I mentioned that I thought that you could apply a non-ref ticket to a refundable ticket so long as the non-refundable value remains non-refundable. The second agent said she'd call the fare desk to see if they'd make an exception. They did and then NW applied the value to my new ticket. Looking at the new ticket online, it doesn't say anything about $xxx being non-refundable. I don't plan on cancelling that new ticket anyway.

Were the agents right? Just curious.

Thanks,
RM

Yes, they were right. If you read the fine print in the rules for non-refundable fare basis codes, you'll see this mentioned at least once if not more. I routinely end up with unused nonrefundable tickets as I change my plans often. This happened so often, in fact, that I no longer book more than 6-7 days in advance -- doing so was actually costing more than it was saving, especially after DL implemented its new fare structure system-wide.

Here's a snippet from one published fare:

"IF NO NONREFUNDABLE FARE WAS FOUND THE PASSENGER WOULD HAVE TO PURCHASE A NEW REFUNDABLE TICKET. THE NONREFUNDABLE TICKET MAY BE SAVED AND APPLIED TO A FUTURE PURCHASE OF ANOTHER NONREFUNDABLE TICKET PER G/NWR/GEN/P4."