To cancel or not to cancel

[Reggie]

Hi Brains Trust,

Long time no post, but I have been lurking.

I have a question, Should I cancel or leave it and what could/will the ramifications be?

Background:
Booked very cheap tickets in (wh)y PER-MAN-PER early this year for my child (son) and I. We have completed the PER-MAN flights already, but my son will not be flying back with me. The tickets are non-refundable, linked, his taxes are lower than a likely admin fee, and there is a risk that when cancelling I could actually be charged more due to high fare calculation. I am thinking of not cancelling and turning up at the airport on my own.

Thanks in advance for your thoughts, advice, comments and experience.

Reggie

 

[JohnK]

To be honest with you I would not risk cancelling and having the booking stuffed up. Take your chances and hopefully the shadow may stick.

I know some people may not agree with that approach but you owe Qantas nothing and you have already paid for the return airfare.

 

[mannej]

Are you able to split the ticket into 2?

 

[ozbeachbabe]

When you say the ticket is "non-refundable linked" was it some kind of companion fare where two pax must travel together ie a 'use it or lose it deal' ?

If so, then there's no advantage to you by telling the airline ahead of time that you son isn't travelling other than give them the opportunity to sell his seat again and get twice the revenue for one seat.

So in that case I wouldn't tell the airline and just front up to checkin solo on the day.

 

[ozbeachbabe]

If the booking is changeable you could get the airline to split the pnr so you and your son each have your own record locator. You can tell the airline you'll call back in a few days once you know the date he'll be travelling.

How long is the ticket valid for eg 12 months from your departure date PER/MAN? If your son will travel MAN/PER within the ticket validity you would need to advise the airline prior to his current date of travel so he's not a no-show.

Some airlines will allow you to just put the booking into a credit shell to rebook later, others may want the new date at the time you're changing his existing flight.

 

[Dr Ralph]

I wouldn't cancel. Playing around with the booking risks things going wrong.

 

[Reggie]

To be honest with you I would not risk cancelling and having the booking stuffed up. Take your chances and hopefully the shadow may stick.

I know some people may not agree with that approach but you owe Qantas nothing and you have already paid for the return airfare.

Hi JohnK, my thoughts were/are as per yours. I paid for flight, can't cancel, not worth fees to change etc, and hopefully the seat will stock but unlikely.

BTW not a Qantas flight.

 

[Reggie]

Hi mannej

Yes I can split, for a phone assistance fee. So it will cost me money to let them know they can resell the seat.

 

[Reggie]

If the booking is changeable you could get the airline to split the pnr so you and your son each have your own record locator. You can tell the airline you'll call back in a few days once you know the date he'll be travelling.

How long is the ticket valid for eg 12 months from your departure date PER/MAN? If your son will travel MAN/PER within the ticket validity you would need to advise the airline prior to his current date of travel so he's not a no-show.

Some airlines will allow you to just put the booking into a credit shell to rebook later, others may want the new date at the time you're changing his existing flight.

Hi ozbeachbabe,

Thank you for your advice (always appreciate reading your insider advice on here) the tickets are not companion fares, just really really cheap so no refund or change.

My son is now based in MAN, so the plans are to do MAN return flights from now on as the flights are generally lots cheaper than PER return.

My concern is not about a refund, but, denial of checkin, loss of my seat or a denied boarding for me.

 

[Reggie]

I wouldn't cancel. Playing around with the booking risks things going wrong.

My thoughts as well. Also don't want to loose pre allocated seat.

 

[ozbeachbabe]

Hi ozbeachbabe,

Thank you for your advice (always appreciate reading your insider advice on here) the tickets are not companion fares, just really really cheap so no refund or change.

My son is now based in MAN, so the plans are to do MAN return flights from now on as the flights are generally lots cheaper than PER return.

My concern is not about a refund, but, denial of checkin, loss of my seat or a denied boarding for me.

One person not travelling shouldn't affect anyone else on the pnr who still is. It's a bit rich if the airline is charging you to simply divide the pnr when you aren't even making any changes to flights at that point. If you are on separate pnrs the CSA won't ask about the other pax so you won't have to say the other person isn't travelling (although you could say they'll be checking in later on).

Just make sure that if you have pre-allocated seats together that your son is the one with the middle seat and you in the aisle or window because when the airline closes the flight and onloads any standby pax they will get the seat vacated by your son.

 

[mannej]

Hi mannej

Yes I can split, for a phone assistance fee. So it will cost me money to let them know they can resell the seat.

That's the first I've heard of someone being charged for it.

 

[JohnK]

BTW not a Qantas flight.

If you don't have any loyalty or fear backlash which won't bappen anyway then leave the booking alone.

I would even go as far as checking in online and leave airport checkin and boarding as late as possible to advise that son in now unable to make it. Better chance of airline not being able to sell seat.

 

[ozbeachbabe]

If you don't have any loyalty or fear backlash which won't bappen anyway then leave the booking alone.

I would even go as far as checking in online and leave airport checkin and boarding as late as possible to advise that son in now unable to make it. Better chance of airline not being able to sell seat.

Also a better chance of things going south very quickly. What if the CSA pools Reggie's baggage with his sons when he does the bag drop?

You may tell the CSA to tag the bags against Reggie's name and the other person will check his bags in separately however they could accidentally add the luggage against both the names as at this point they have no reason to believe Reggie's son isn't travelling? Or worse still when the luggage is not only pooled against both pax but Reggie's son is head of pool ie the bag tags are against his name?

The ramifications could be that when Reggie's son is a noshow at the gate, airline staff will want to offload the bags which they think will belong to him. It could get really complicated trying to explain that the bags belong to Reggie not his son.

I heard of one case where 4 people were booked, but only three wanted to travel but they wanted the spare seat plus the additional baggage allowance for the person no longer travelling. As Murphy's Law dictates the head of pool for the baggage was the very person no longer travelling. When at T-15 it became apparent that the fail to board pax with the bags against his name was no longer travelling, the whole scenario sounded too suss for the Captain who wanted the rest of the group offloaded as well.

 

[JohnK]

I heard of one case where 4 people were booked, but only three wanted to travel but they wanted the spare seat plus the additional baggage allowance for the person no longer travelling. As Murphy's Law dictates the head of pool for the baggage was the very person no longer travelling. When at T-15 it became apparent that the fail to board pax with the bags against his name was no longer travelling, the whole scenario sounded too suss for the Captain who wanted the rest of the group offloaded as well.

They didn't check who had the luggage tags?

My suggestion was for online checkin and if bag drop required at airport to leave this as late as possible. Son wouldn't be travelling at this point so luggage should be ok and very late for airline to now sell the seat to someone else.

Also the likelihood of another passenger allocating that middle seat from time checkin closes to time of departure would be minimal.

 

[feezable]

Personally, I would just checkin as normal and not even mention your son unless asked. It is quite normal for people on the same pnr to checkin separately and it should cause no issue at all. It will definitely be to your benefit to let them think that your son is still travelling as his seat won't be reassigned until the last moment, if at all. I'm not suggesting that you lie, but rather be selective with your words I mean he will be checking in on his own... sometime.

 

[Reggie]

Thanks to all for your advice and comments. After returning from our cruise, I have tried to ring Etihad again, and this time they waived the telephone assistance fee, so I separated the tickets, and then attempted to cancel my sons ticket. However, even though it non changeable or refundable they offered to make it open, and allow me to book another date for $150 change fee and fare difference payable when we chose another date.

I'll have to wait and see if it's worth it later, but better than a kick in the bum.

My seat selection seems to have stuck so far and my sons seat now shows as available.

 

[cove]

Reggie that is a very reasonable offer. Many AFFers would be excited.

 

[Reggie]

Yep very reasonable I thought, considering I expected nothing.

 

[cove]

Normally zero is one of my favourite travel charges and after thinking a bit more I think $150 is pretty close to that number.