There are many things that can go wrong when you travel and it begins when you make your plans and reservations. People want the discounts that are available with non-cancelable bookings but then want to be able to change or cancel their plans when something comes up! So it pays to follow the rules and here are a few tips on what those rules are.
So the first rule of thumb is: Don't book a non cancelable, non-changeable ticket unless you are absolutely sure you will use it. Neither sickness nor injury will allow you to change the ticket without paying extra - including possibly losing the sale fare. And often you can die and STILL get only another ticket for future use and not a refund.
Make sure of the city and airport you WANT to go to. I have had more than one person cancel a reservation and tell me they thought they were leaving from San Francisco but actually were booked out of San Jose or Oakland. Third party sites like Expedia don't help matters either with their ridiculous web site set up. Type in your city 'San Francisco' and a sub menu pops up with 4 choices: San Francisco QSF (All Airports), Oakland, SFO (the correct one) and San Jose. Now why would they offer Oakland or San Jose if I typed in the words SAN FRANCISCO? It's illogical and sometimes people don't pay attention and check the wrong box. (When you type in Oakland, it puts in Oakland - it doesn't give the same 4 options so why do this for SFO only?)
My last piece of advice is to make sure your ID matches your booking. You should never reserve a flight with an abbreviation or nickname. The rules for booking require the ID to match up with the reservation and using "J.J." instead of Jonathan may cost you your seat. Don't even shorten your name - a woman named Janet made a booking and used the name Jan and was denied boarding because of the discrepancy. Another woman's passport still had her maiden name but she booked a ticket under her married name. The airline 'fixed' it but it cost her an extra $400. The same goes for interchanging your name. If you accidentally buy a ticket under a name like Carlton Roy but your name is Roy Carlton - back of the line for you and rebook your ticket with the 'proper' name. The airlines blame the TSA and governemnt security regulations for this but the governemnt says it is an airline issue, so no amount of complaining will help you. Better to get it right the first time.
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