If you cancel, do you give the ticket to the person you were going with?

I was looking forward to an opera visit but with only a few days notice my friend cancelled. She couldn’t leave her new puppy. I invited another friend who wouldn’t have paid for a ticket but thoroughly enjoyed it. She wouldn’t have come if she had to pay. Mind you not everyone thinks like that and I’ve paid full price for a ticket when another friend was let down. Generally I think if someone cancels at short notice they shouldn’t expect anything back.

If I had to cancel for any reason, especially at short notice, I'll definitely give my ticket to someone and wouldn't expect anything in return. After all, you've already paid for the ticket, so why let it go to waste?

A very disgruntled winner was moaning that she had only won One ticket to a ballet in London. Hearing which ballet I laughingly offered her a fiver for the ticket. The offer was accepted and I will never ever forget seeing male swans in Swan Lake.
I wonder if the silly original winner of this ticket realised how much she was loosing out by accepting my offer of a fiver.

I wouldn't expect to be given a ticket by someone who was unable to go. I would always at least offer the money.

my friend doesn’t want to go anymore

This sums it up. The friend doesn’t want to go anymore. Not wanting to go is not really a reason to pull out. There should be a good reason really such as illness. She should give you the ticket so that you can go with another friend.

not really a friend if she let's you down and doesn't offer you the opportunity to still go with someone else. Of course she should give you the spare ticket

If you each paid for your ticket, I don't think you can expect her to give you hers, but I do feel that if you know someone who would like to use it, that you could ask your friend if that person could buy her ticket.

And I suppose if she paid for both tickets you could ask her if the ticket is still available.

I don't think you can expect her just to give you the ticket free of charge, however well off she is.

I would just have given the ticket I couldn't use to you so you could ask someone else to accompany you. Maybe you might suggest to your friend that you could try to find someone else who might like to use the ticket and wait to see if she is happy to give it away or else ask for recompense. I find it strange for her not to have offered it to you straight away.

If she doesn't offer you the ticket to share with someone else, I wouldn't say anything but I would remember not to invite her to anything in the future.
I had to let a friend down because of ill health she had got us tickets to a late-night shop opening near Christmas with a Champagne reception. I did give her the ticket back and she took someone else. They didn't give me any money for it which I would have done.

No sign of Cambsnan returning to tell us what actually happened.

I do grandetante. The friend doesn’t want to go. What will she do with the ticket? She’s pulled out, she should give her ticket to her friend so that her friend can take another friend. After all, the friend who’s pulled out isn’t going herself, and she’s sitting on a ticket that’s going to waste. Very, very few people go to the theatre alone, and so she’s unlikely to be able to sell it. Anyway, I think she’s got a moral responsibility to ensure her friend is able to go with someone else.

And if I was the OP, I wouldn’t make anymore arrangements with the friend who let me down.

The friend wasn’t unable to go dragonfly she backed out of going.

There’s a difference,

Your friend expects you will go on your own! If she doesn't offer to sell her ticket to someone else who could go with you, is she really a friend. To give it away for free would be a slap in that you have paid for your ticket and someone else could go for free.

You do not decide whether or not someone can afford to lose money. It is up to the other person whether to offer you the ticket for free, or at half price, or at full price, for someone else, because you have not actually paid for this person's ticket, and you always have the option to go alone.

4allweknow

Your friend expects you will go on your own! If she doesn't offer to sell her ticket to someone else who could go with you, is she really a friend. To give it away for free would be a slap in that you have paid for your ticket and someone else could go for free.

I totally disagree. If I let someone down it is because I have no choice, so the ticket is worthless to me, as I couldn’t use it. Letting someone else have it so the person I have let down can still go is the least I can do in the circumstances. Finding a replacement attendee is likely to be much harder if they are expected to stump up £££ at short notice.

Basically it is up to the person who has pulled out of an agreement to mitigate that loss as far as possible. If the friend is unable to go alone then to be honest I think that the cost of her ticket should be covered too. The fact that someone else was able to step in and cover for me would be a relief, not a slap in the face.

Tanjamaltija

You do not decide whether or not someone can afford to lose money. It is up to the other person whether to offer you the ticket for free, or at half price, or at full price, for someone else, because you have not actually paid for this person's ticket, and you always have the option to go alone.

I think it's possible that the OP gave us that information - about the friend being well-off - as context to the situation.

I'm sure a few posters, considering their response, would've asked if the friend could afford to give the ticket away before making a comment.

Of course the friend is not obliged to give the ticket away for free, and yes the OP naturally has the option to go to the event alone; but it doesn't appear to be the case that she wants to do that!

We can only judge by what we'd do ourselves I guess. I'm with those who feel that if you let your friend down in such a way, you donate the ticket simply as a good-will gesture. I suppose it depends on the nature of the event but most people I suspect don't want to go to 'events' on their lonesome, which is why they plan to go together in the first instance.

Personally I would try and sell it before considering giving it away. Even if it’s at a reduced price.

Would people really rather see a friend miss out on an event than have a ticket that they can’t use go to someone else free? I can’t wind my head around that at all.

If someone asked me to go with them to, say, an organ recital (not my cup of tea) I would go to keep them company but wouldn’t want to pay £££ to do so.

I recently had a ticket to see Bruce Springsteen that ill health meant I couldn’t use 😢. I was very happy to let it go to someone else who could use it though. What would have been the point of keeping it?

I can't wind my head around that at all neither can I Doodledog.

I'd give my ticket to the friend I was supposed to have gone with, so she could find someone to go with her.

Funny that this thread has resurfaced , last night my friend and I bought tickets for a play. I’m a ‘Friend’ of the theatre and only paid for one ticket as it is the first night and that’s the deal. If I can’t go then I will definitely dive my ticket to her. I will have lost nothing, a perfect solution.