What can I do with a plane ticket that won't be used?

You can advertise for someone with the same name as your companion to come on the trip with you, like this person did:

A Toronto man looking for a travel partner with the same name as his ex-girlfriend has finally found his match. After making headlines a month ago by offering a free plane ticket around the world to someone named “Elizabeth Gallagher,” Jordan Axani has found the right girl. Elizabeth Quinn Gallagher of Cole Harbour, N.S., will be headed to New York Thursday to begin the trip of a lifetime. The journey began last month with a post to Reddit.com titled: “Are you named Elizabeth Gallagher (and Canadian)? Want a free plane ticket around the world?”

In the post, Axani said he was stuck with tickets purchased at a discount but worth several thousand dollars. He had planned a trip with his girlfriend, he said, but they had since broken up, and the airline wasn’t budging on the ticketholder names.

Even if the fare rule doesn't allow refunds in principle, the airline may decide to give you one anyway, especially if you cancel long in advance so they have ample time to sell the seat to someone else. Although it's only one data point, it happened to me with Lufthansa a couple years ago, but since it's the only time I have had to cancel a ticket, I can't say how common it is.

I had a pair of non-refundable tickets I thought I was going to lose money on because my trip got cancelled; however, as a few people have mentioned...CALL THE AIRLINE! Technically, they did not refund the money for my tickets, but they gave me a credit to use within one year.

While that might not seem like a good deal, it really was. My plans changed at the last minute and I had no options. I couldn't call anyone or try to sell them--I'm not even sure I could sell the original tickets (they said "only the passenger listed on the ticket could use the ticket"). However, the "new" status of my credit not only gave me 12 months to use them, it also gave me new terms to change the passenger's name (for a fee). Although I used the credit to purchase tickets for a new destination, it was nice to know I had a year to figure out what to do.

You're already willing to sit next to a vacant seat (which isn't bad for long flights), but you'll be irritated if you don't ask the question...paid twice as much as you should have...and THEN find out the airline over-booked the flight and someone is sitting in YOUR empty seat.

As far as the seat is concerned - the airline will take care of that problem for you - in that the seat won't be empty for long. It will probably be assigned to some standby passenger, especially if you are flying a busy route.

In most cases, airlines (for a fee that varies) will allow you to change the name on the ticket if it has not been used. You can check if this is allowed and then sell your ticket online; bearing the cost of the name change.

Have you contacted the airline yet? Depending on the circumstances of your travel companion's inability to go, they maybe able to cancel and leave you a credit that you can apply towards a future ticket, offer a partial refund of taxes or perhaps more, allow you to reschedule.

In terms of using it to make your trip more comfortable, if you are flying economy, simply keep it and enjoy an empty seat next to you. You would need to contact the airline and get them to put a note in your booking about having and using two seats (you could claim you are terribly obese and prefer two seats in lieu of disturbing your seat mates). You would likely still need to pay a name change fee, since your companions name would be currently attached to the booking.

Depending on the airline and the fare class, you may be able to get part of the value back by agreeing to a cancellation fee, with the remainder of the price paid given as a voucher you can use for future travel.

The airline may indicate that tickets are non-refundable, non-returnable, or non-transferable, but the reality is that those rules are there for the airline's benefit - they may choose to refund, return, transfer, or provide a gift card or voucher at the customer's request.

In other words, don't assume they will stick to the terms and conditions, they may choose to be flexible with you, particularly if they know they can re-sell the seat at a profit that you might have received at a discount.

Barring that, another option is to find out if, rather than transferring it to another person you can transfer the ticket to an item. Many airlines allow customers to purchase a seat for fragile or bulky items. If you can do this, post an ad and see if you can transport a fragile package for someone. It's a bit of a long shot, but "white glove" transportation services do this for a premium, and you might be able to find someone needing such a service that could offset or completely cover the cost of the ticket you might otherwise lose.

Even with a non-refundable ticket you should be able to get back whatever taxes you have paid on it, and on some tickets the taxes form most of the cost. Unfortunately, some airlines takes a substantial fee for this, so you will have to talk to your airline to figure out if it is worth it.

Cheap tickets are often not refundable, and certainly not transferable. But there are a lot of taxes that have probably been paid for, and being that there are two countries involved and possibly three given there's a stop somewhere, you probably would be entitled to some form of refund on fees and taxes that you were initially charged for that the airline had passed on to you.

If you don't fly, the airline doesn't pay these and you would be entitled to getting those funds back.

In Australia, the ABC series "The Checkout" did a segment on this and is quite relevant.

The Checkout: cheap airline ticket refunds

If you have time, give it away. Announce it on social media and tell everyone in London to share it with their friends.

The goodwill and social reach you get from the giveaway will be worth more than the price of the ticket.