Cancel, Void, or Refund

Four verbs, four outcomes

Unwinding a booking is a two-axis decision: what happens to the flights, and what happens to the tickets. NDCTerm gives each combination its own verb, so the command says exactly what you intend:

• CANCEL — the full unwind: flights cancelled, tickets voided or refunded, whichever applies.
• VOID — tickets voided at full value, flights left active. Only inside the void window.
• REFUND — tickets refunded (a penalty may apply), flights left active.
• CREDIT — flights cancelled, ticket value retained with the airline for future use.

All four are guarded before commitment. When the carrier supports a pre-commit quote, NDCTerm displays the airline's response and breakdown. Some carrier protocols cannot quote a document-only reversal; in that case the screen explicitly says estimated from the stored fare, and the carrier confirms the actual result only when you answer Y. An estimate is never labelled as an airline quote, and nothing irreversible happens before your confirmation.

CANCEL

CANCEL             # Cancel the loaded order — quote, then Y/N
CANCEL/ABC123      # Cancel a specific order by ID
CANCEL/P1          # Cancel passenger 1 only, where the carrier supports an automatic split
CANCEL/EMD/1       # Cancel a single EMD service line — the flight tickets stay

Two shapes worth knowing:

• An unticketed order cancels immediately. No documents means nothing to quote — the held space is released without the quote step.
• CANCEL/EMD/1 refunds one ancillary service line — a paid seat or service — leaving the itinerary and flight tickets untouched. It is a service-line refund, not a per-document void. Free items cancel directly. Per-passenger cancellation depends on the booking supporting an automatic split.

VOID

VOID               # Void the tickets on the loaded order

VOID is a safety guard as much as a command. Where a carrier quote is available, it verifies a true void — full amount back, inside the void window. Where only an estimate is possible, the display says so before confirmation and the carrier's mutation response remains authoritative. If the definitive result is a refund instead of a void, NDCTerm refuses the mismatch and directs you to REFUND. Outside the void window, VOID is the wrong verb by design.

Note what VOID leaves behind: the flights stay active. Use it to re-do documents — wrong FOP, wrong fare picked — not to release space. Releasing space is CANCEL.

REFUND

REFUND             # Refund the tickets, keep the flights active

When the carrier can quote, the screen shows the refund per document with any penalty broken out. When it cannot, the amount is visibly labelled as a stored-fare estimate and should not be promised as final until the carrier confirms the refund.

One carrier reality to expect: a refund requested inside the void window may come back from the airline as a void. The carrier decides void-versus-refund based on its own void period, and inside it, voiding at full value is what you get. That is correct behavior, not an error — the quote states which operation the airline will perform, so read the quote header, not just the amount.

CREDIT

CREDIT             # Cancel the flights, keep the ticket value as credit

CREDIT is for the traveler who isn't flying now but will: the flights are cancelled and the ticket's value is retained with the airline for future use. The screen shows either the carrier's quoted credit or a clearly labelled estimate. When comparing it with REFUND, read the source label as well as the amount; answer N to leave the order untouched.

After any of the four, verify from the order itself: retrieve it with *ABC123 and read the document states — the same discipline as issuance. To change flights rather than unwind them, see Service and Change an Order.