Disney tickets - non-refundable? and other questions

I think I'm understanding that once you buy a ticket, it's non-refundable. Is that correct no matter where you buy it? Discounters, AAA, etc.?

Here's the situation: Going to WDW in mid-December. One of our party may have to cancel at the last minute depending on a personal situation. We would like to buy the tickets at least 30 days in advance to make fastpasses (staying off-site). If this person buys their ticket, then has to cancel, what are the options available? It would probably be a 5 fay hopper. Here's one option I was thinking of, but I don't know if it's possible to do or not: I would buy the ticket from this person and then combine my 5 day hopper and their 5 day hopper and get myself an annual pass. Can you do that? Combine two tickets like that?

You can only upgrade from one ticket. You can't use two or more tickets to upgrade to the AP.

And yes, tickets are technically non refundable except in the case where they are part of a Disney package. In that case, if you cancel the entire package, then the tickets are refunded as well.

If you purchase the tickets directly from Disney, it's *possible* that you could call and get a pixie dust laden CM who would be willing to refund the purchase - but that's not likely.

Good news is that you won't actually lose the money spent on the ticket. Even though there is an expiration date on the ticket, if it's not used by that date, the full value can still be applied to another ticket purchase later on. Any price increases will apply, of course, to a new ticket, but you aren't out the original purchase price.

Steve