If you have booked a flight without using the ticket you can get a large portion of the cost back, even for low fare tickets, because you can get all government taxes refunded.
Airlines frequently have terms and conditions that prevent refunds of ticket costs if it’s not the airline’s fault that you have not used you ticket, especially for low fare flights. If you show up too late, get sick or for other reasons cannot go that usually means no money back. Luckily you can get a portion of the money back by requesting to have the government taxes refunded, and because you have to actively request it, most people miss this opportunity.
The exact process varies from airline to airline, but in simple terms it is to make a request to the airline that you want government taxes refunded for your unused flight. Some airlines, like Norwegian Air Shuttle and Ryanair have websites where you can fill out a form to request a refund. KLM has got one as well, but also offers to do this process through social media!
If you have booked a flight through a travel agency you have to get in touch with them to get the taxes refunded.
Fee for refunding
Some airlines impose a fee to process the refund. Ryanair does for instance take 17 euros to refund your ticket and if the taxes are below this level you will not get anything back. Others, like KLM does this for free.
Government imposed taxes
You can only request government imposed taxes to be refunded, regardless of ticket type (however, some airlines might have terms and agreements that provides more than the legal minimum). The total noted under “taxes and fees” may include more than the government taxes, such as fuel surcharges.
Some travel insurances cover costs when tickets aren’t used for various reasons. However, these insurances usually don’t cover taxes and fees, since they can be refunded anyway. The issue with this is that while most travel insurances will refund no taxes you can only claim back government taxes. The remaining taxes and fees are usually lost, even when travel insurance say that they will refund unused tickets. Read the terms and conditions carefully!
We have been fortunate enough that we never had to request taxes to be refunded, but if we are in an unlucky in the future it is good to know that we can at least claim some money back. Have you ever missed a flight and had taxes refunded?
