Tips for reducing loss through international flight cancellation

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JuliusSeizure

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Booked an international flight via Singapore Airlines for late January on a non-refundable fare as I booked the cheapest option. I may need to cancel the ticket as life happens and expect and accept that I will lose a chunk of money.

Is there anything I can do to minimize the flight loss expenditure if I have to cancel?

I am aware that in the worst case scenario I will only get refunded the tax fee which is a minimal amount.

If anyone has experience doing this type of thing with Singapore airlines, your input would be appreciated.
 
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If you used a credit card, you will have automatic travel insurance on the deal and if your reason for cancellation is covered, the insurance will pay back the money.
 
Stonemason said:
If you used a credit card, you will have automatic travel insurance on the deal and if your reason for cancellation is covered, the insurance will pay back the money.
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Used my cheque card to make the purchase. The reason for cancellation though is not a life or death situation but due to my schedule unexpectedly changing so I hope it may be covered.
 
Only suggestion short of insurance is to check if changing the flight to suit your schedule works... (or changing the name? And reselling???). Most airlines don't allow this, but will depends on exact fare.

Otherwise it's probably a zero...
 
JuliusSeizure said:
Used my cheque card to make the purchase. The reason for cancellation though is not a life or death situation but due to my schedule unexpectedly changing so I hope it may be covered.
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Neglecting to ensure to insure yourself through travel insurance happens to the young.

CONGRATS ON BEING YOUNG, JULIUS!
 
JuliusSeizure said:
Used my cheque card to make the purchase. The reason for cancellation though is not a life or death situation but due to my schedule unexpectedly changing so I hope it may be covered.
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No amount of travel insurance will protect you from that.
Next time buy a ticket that can be date or name changed.
 
airborne said:
No amount of travel insurance will protect you from that.
Next time buy a ticket that can be date or name changed.
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This travel insurance will not help at all.

With international flights never take non refundable tickets that's why they the cheapest least risk for the airline most risk for you. Nothing you can really do barring trying to get them to reschedule at a fee and that's if they allow that at all.
 
JuliusSeizure said:
Booked an international flight via Singapore Airlines for late January on a non-refundable fare as I booked the cheapest option. I may need to cancel the ticket as life happens and expect and accept that I will lose a chunk of money.

Is there anything I can do to minimize the flight loss expenditure if I have to cancel?

I am aware that in the worst case scenario I will only get refunded the tax fee which is a minimal amount.

If anyone has experience doing this type of thing with Singapore airlines, your input would be appreciated.
Click to expand...

Can you postpone the trip or are you set on cancelling completely?

Cause most airlines let you change the flight dates for a small fee.
 
If you like to gamble ... if you book far enough in advance with Turkish with a non-refundable ticket the chances of them changing one of the times of one of the legs by at least 15 min is reasonably high, sometimes it is only a 20min reschedule .. but then you get the option of changing your ticket up to -7/30 days and also changing airports within the same region. Happened a few times for me.
 
tetrasect said:
Can you postpone the trip or are you set on cancelling completely?
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Unexpected life events happened. I still have about 6-7 weeks to go.

This is the first time I have had to deal with something like this. Bought the tickets about 3-4 months ago.
 
If you call th, you may be able to get a better deal if you reschedule than if you cancel - assuming you still want to travel at some point in the future.
 
cguy said:
If you call th, you may be able to get a better deal if you reschedule than if you cancel - assuming you still want to travel at some point in the future.
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Yeah, hopefully. I will just wait a few days until it is confirmed that I won't be able to use flight but it's looking more likely than not rn.

I will probably change. At least, I might get to see a new destination.
 
Update: Cancelled yesterday expecting to take a big loss but the loss was literally only about R1500 so I got very lucky.

Exceptional stuff from Singapore Airlines.
 
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Anyone know the reason why sometimes vendors sell tickets for cheaper than the airlines directly? I would have thought that vendors add a fee so would be more expensive but I've seen several international flights where vendors sell for cheaper, even bought such flights though it becomes a pain when you need to make changes as the flight will tell you to go via the vendor and some of them are difficult to deal with.
 
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JuliusSeizure said:
Update: Cancelled yesterday expecting to take a big loss but the loss was literally only about R1500 so I got very lucky.

Exceptional stuff from Singapore Airlines.
Click to expand...
Did they refund the money into your bank account, not just a credit you can use later?
 
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