Swiss International Airlines - Solution for a (very) stupid booking mistake?

I'm an idiot..... (so that's out of the way).

A few weeks ago I made a booking to fly BRU-ZRH-JFK-ZRH-BRU with Swiss in T-class (one of the lower Y classes). Just to do some shopping in NYC.
Found a reasonably priced ticket and a decent hotel, so far so good.

But in the haste to make the booking I made a very stupid mistake... instead of choosing 22.12.2011 for the return I somehow choose 22.02.2012. And to add insult to injury I didn't notice this mistake when I received the e-ticket.
Today I booked another ticket with Swiss (love those one day Z sales). And when I looked at my bookings saw that both trips seem to overlap :eek:

So now it's time to get out of this mess without it costing a lot of money. Changing the Y ticket to the correct date seems to be a bad choice. I would have to pay not only the €120 fee for changes but also a higher fare bucket. Total costs > €750.

So far I've come up with two options:
1 - Use my miles for a one way award and cancel the return of my original ticket. Total cost 30.000-52.500miles depending on booking class plus €200 taxes and fees.
2 - Buy another round trip starting from NYC and change the date of my original return to a date where the original fare bucket is available. Cost one extra ticket and €120.

I'm leaning towards the option 1 since that seems the cheapest option. But it's costing me miles :-(. The benefit of option 2 is that I get to go to NYC again and will be earning miles. But it's costing me extra money.
Any better ideas?

Thanks... and yes I know, it was a stupid mistake....

If you choose option 1: Do not cancel the return part of the ticket booked in T. This will result (most likely) in a recalculation of your fare, since it becomes a one-way ticket (can someone confirm this ?).
What you also shouldn't forget is the value of the miles you will "waste" if you book it this way.

Therefore, depending on the price you can get for an extra NYC-BRU-NYC, I would probably choose option 2.

Thanks. After thinking it over I decided to do just as you're suggesting.
I booked another return starting from NYC. So now I get to enjoy another vacation in may of next year. And didn't waste my miles :-).

The cost of the new ticket is not really cheap (€800 for economy) and I had to book it with Jet Airways which will give me no additional miles. But at least I get another trip out of it. And it's a direct flight.

I've also learned that Swiss provides the option to change your flight online. Not too bad for such an outdated system. How difficult can it be to provide the option to also choose your seat.....
And that Jet Airways keeps showing a (cheap) fare that isn't bookable when you select it. Making using their website for the best price impossible. Really annoying.

Well 800 € is quite a lot, I'd probably taken option 1 then.
The good news is that you will get miles for your Jet airways flight, however only bonus miles:
http://www.miles-and-more.com/online/portal/mam/ch/earn/flight/offer?nodeid=2509070&l=en&cid=18003

About the Swiss webpage: I would be happy if open jaw bookings were possible (on which other airline webpage you can't do that??), definitely an outdated system.

You must have been angry when you discovered your mistake! I feel for you! Have you tried to call swiss and explain your situation, maybe if you have status and the agent is happy and leaving tomorrow for christmas-holiday she/he could help you out? Never underestimate the power of negotiation and sweet-talking! :)

Angry at myself yes.... and after calling Swiss and explaining the situation also a little mad at them.

Although the agent was very nice and correct, there was no way I was getting any "favours". My explanation that I made a mistake fell on deaf ears. I do know that there are fare rules and that cheap tickets come with limitations. But that on a €600 ticket (not exactly cheap) there would be an extra fee of €700 for changing just the inbound seems a little absurd.

Since I'm just a lowly FTL (with bookings for 3 C and 2 Y longhauls in the last 6 months, not all flow yet) my status probably didn't make an impression.

Maybe I should have invited her to join me in NYC ;)

Well 800 € is quite a lot, I'd probably taken option 1 then.
The good news is that you will get miles for your Jet airways flight, however only bonus miles

The biggest part of the €800 is the outbound on Dec 22. All airlines have really raised prices for this week. Just trying to rip-off those last-minute people who are desperate to get home before X-mas.
Including changing my booking with Swiss it's >€900. But with the loss I would have otherwise taken on canceling half my ticket, the extra cost is just about the price of a normal ticket.

But I thought about using miles for a one way award, 52.500 miles for a C class ticket (30.000 for Y but that was only available two days later). I think I would have liked taking the Private Air flight, although I'm not sure if it's better than the regular Swiss C seats.

The mile earning on Jet Airways is news to me, thanks. Although I will only earn on the (expensive) outbound trip, the return is booked in O-class so no miles for that one.

About the Swiss webpage: I would be happy if open jaw bookings were possible (on which other airline webpage you can't do that??), definitely an outdated system.

That's another thing that is missing. Just like the M&M integration for bookings and some other stuff.
I must say that I like the presentation when booking flights. Having the option of +/- 3 days and showing all fare classes in one screen is useful. Just as showing the availability for a special rate in the outbound/return flight calendar.

I think I would have liked taking the Private Air flight, although I'm not sure if it's better than the regular Swiss C seats.


Unless this has changed recently, IMHO the regular C seat is much better than the seat in the Private Air planes.

You must have been angry when you discovered your mistake! I feel for you! Have you tried to call swiss and explain your situation, maybe if you have status and the agent is happy and leaving tomorrow for christmas-holiday she/he could help you out? Never underestimate the power of negotiation and sweet-talking! :)
FWIW, LX and LH will cancel and refund your ticket for free if you relaise your mistake withing 24 on booking @:-)

That's also what they told me on the phone. As a general rule not bad.

What annoyed me the most was not that I would have had to pay the fee for changing my ticket but that it was also to be calculated against current prices.
This in reality made changes impossible. Nobody is paying €1400 for a Y ticket....

They would have had a point when at the time of booking the fare class wasn't available for the dates I had in mind. But that wasn't the case.

So it really was an honest mistake. Offcourse one I should have myself seen a lot sooner.

But I guess that in reality the airlines can almost make up their own rules on how to deal with fees for changes and cancellations.

Wouldn't it be possible to up-sell to a Y fare that allows canceling the ticket with refund of the price and then to cancel it and book new?

Upfaring to refundable ticket still carries the original amound as non-ref amount.
So if you upfare $400 ticket to $1000 ticket, it will have "$400 NON REF" attached to it.