Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan - Partner Award "Change Day" Question

I am in the middle of putting together a Partner Award ticket on AF. SEA-CDG-CAI

I am having trouble booking the CDG-CAI segment and I may have to change the outbound date.....

When I reserved the first segment I was told that I can make changes on the outbound (ie.days) until we lock in the return segment......

Today I was told...no...I can only make one change "free" before it becomes $100 per person.

Which CSR is right.... or did I misunderstand.

I am in the middle of putting together a Partner Award ticket on AF. SEA-CDG-CAI

I am having trouble booking the CDG-CAI segment and I may have to change the outbound date.....

When I reserved the first segment I was told that I can make changes on the outbound (ie.days) until we lock in the return segment......

Today I was told...no...I can only make one change "free" before it becomes $100 per person.

Which CSR is right.... or did I misunderstand.
What you say sounds somewhat familiar to me from my experience booking a BA trip, but I was making those phone calls back in December of 2007, so I don't recall specifics. It's also possible policies have changed in the meantime or that it varies by partner carrier...

It actually got more confusing.

I called back to make a change to the outbound since for some unknown reason AF has basically stopped loading any award seats almost a week ago ( using Expertflier) and I found my itinerary "stuck" in Paris when our final destination was CAI....

So I called to change the outbound to coordinate with the last CDG-CAI flight AF was offering ( 2 days earlier than I wanted) and now I was told that there was a $100 change fee per person because it no longer was in a 3 day window from when I booked the first segment.

They also went on to say " that if I was booking the return at this point and I had to change the outbound...there would be no change fee" ( first I ever heard of that )

Of course I politely protested and said that was not what I was told originally so they changed my flights w/o a fee " this time"..... but if and when AF begins to load award seats again I wanted the original itinerary back I would at that point be required to pay $100 pp.

I really wonder if there are rules "posted" or if they are at the discretion of the CSR that you happen to get.:rolleyes:

you are allowed to make one free change within 3 days of booking.

you are also allowed to make a free change in order to add on a return segment in the case that you booked the outbound so early that the return is not available.

If, while booking said return segment, you make changes to other segments... they aren't going to charge you separately because they need to reissue the ticket anyway.

Any other changes outside those two scenarios are $100 per change.