[moore549]

I have been travelling in South America since October. I notified Continental in November that I would not be able to use my return flight home in Feb. since I was going to be volunteering for longer than expected.

I emailed them and asked for a refund of half my ticket, 400 dollars. They sent me an automatic reply saying that my ticket was sold at a deep discount and it would not be refunded. I sent them other emails asking to have it credited towards a new ticket, and they sent me the same automated response.

The ticket was NOT sold at discount, and they should be able to help me out, especially given the advance notice I gave them. I am now in South America still, minus 400 of my own dollars which Continental chose to keep.

[mars6423]

well legally Continental doesn't need to give you a refund, even with that amount of notice (from what i can tell the ticket purchesed was non-refundable, which the majority of tickets are) and with that they are not required to refund your flight as it was part of the contract, it would be a nice token and gesture for them to do and it would help customers/passengers think about flying them again if they are on the edge between choosing an airline to fly with more frequently (loyalty). It is bad business to not provide a refund with that amount of time provided and/or not give you the credit for a future flight. We all know that your seat will be sold to another passenger, so they are taking your money as profit while your not using the services paid for and getting money from another passenger for the same seat (so minimally getting double for that one seat)

I do have a question, did you try and rebook/change the flight date to a later day that you knew? or are you going to buy another ticket back? I am not sure if you know hat there will be a change fee ($150) if you are going to change the original booking

[jimworcs]

You are not entitled to a refund, but I would call and make sure they have not cancelled your return. This will lower the chances of them profiteering unless the flight is oversold. Not all flights over-sell.

Mars is correct is sayign it might be cheaper to see if you can change the return flight to your new return date and pay the fee, than to let the booking go completely.

The airlines maintain a ridiculously opaque pricing mechanism which means that unless you paid thousands, you technically bought your ticket at a "deep discount". It is complete nonsense and everyone, including the airlines, know it. It is simply to allow them to rip people off when they are desperate to fly.