The Middle East crisis has triggered a wave of flight cancellations that goes far beyond operational disruption. For companies whose employees travel regularly in the region, a significant financial issue has quietly built up: dozens, sometimes hundreds of unused tickets, for which refunds are neither automatic nor straightforward.

Why it is more complex than it appears

Not all cancelled tickets are handled the same way. Depending on the airline, fare class, and ticketing conditions, several situations coexist: refundable ticket, future travel credit (often with restrictive conditions), non-refundable ticket, or partially used ticket. Add to this heterogeneous airline policies, temporary waivers with precise conditions, and deadlines that keep running. One frequently overlooked point: even on a non-refundable ticket, airport taxes remain recoverable. They can represent between 20% and 50% of the ticket price. It is never automatic — it requires an explicit request — but it is a right.

The limits of delegating to the Travel Agency

The TMC is a useful partner, but they can’t cover everything. They process tickets issued through their own systems, can flag active waivers, and initiate refund requests (all of this sometimes at extra cost). However, their support is limited: they don’t proactively refund taxes unless agreed otherwise, they don’t manage tickets outside their scope nor do follow-up on old/complex cases. Which is problematic since airlines may take a while to reimburse, especially during major crisis.

The responsibility of unused ticket follow-up lies with the company

What Travel managers need to do

1. Map the exposure Identify all affected tickets, cross-reference booking data against trips actually taken, and distinguish between TMC-issued and directly-issued tickets.

2. Qualify each case For each ticket: exact status, applicable waivers, recoverable amount (taxes included), action deadline. A €300 ticket whose rights expire in fifteen days must be actioned before an €800 case with a window still open for three month. This step enables intelligent prioritization.

3. Set up operational tracking: dashboard, owners, updated tasks. Without this, significant amounts end up lapsing past their recovery deadline.

4. Actively manage credit reuse Open credits have real value — but only if activated before expiration. Directing upcoming bookings toward creditor airlines, or negotiating a validity extension, are concrete levers.

Takeaways

Across a significant corporate travel portfolio, unclaimed amounts can reach very substantial sums (in extreme crisis mode like Covid, it represented up to 64% of the air spend !) The complexity is real, but it is manageable with the right approach. It is precisely in situations like this that the value of a well-structured Travel function reveals itself.