Other Middle East and Africa Frequent Flyer Programs - SAA - What are the chances?

HI all,

Im new to this site as i have a specific query with my SAA flight adn it probably applies to flights in general.

I have a flight booked LHR to J'Berg on Dec 25th, returning from Cape Town on Jan 19th. I got a cheaper fare as i booked in March of this year. I have started a college course and an exam falls at the beginning of Jan so i need to return by the 11th at the very latest now. I thought it would simply be a case of changing the date but all those dates are "full" although there are seats available but just for a different price (between £300-£400), the travel agent will look daily to see if some of these seats become available as sometimes the seats may get released???Its so frustrating to think that i booked early to save money, with the knowledge that i can date change and they have seats available but i cant have just 1 seat to fly home on! Argh!

How do the seats "getting released" work and do you think the chances of this are slim for this time of the year? Or is there anything else i should do? Should i "wing it" and wait at the airport each day to see if i can get on a flight? Argh i dont know what to do! Any suggestions/advice would be more than helpful????

If that doesnt work i may have to just cancel my trip :-(!
Thank you

CarlyF, welcome to FT ^ and to the wonderful world of airline pricing.
What you experience is in fact standard for all airlines worldwide. Whenever you change your ticket, you have to pay the change fee (if any) plus any difference in fare.

Airlines release only a limited number of seats at the cheapest fares. Once they're sold out, or if they believe they will be able to sell them at a more expensive price, there's nothing you can do. Sometimes the cheaper seats come back (for example if demand is weaker than anticipated), sometimes they don't.

I guess your desired dates are peak high season, so you'll need a bit of luck, but since the flights are so many months away, you have a chance if you (or your TA) keep checking.

Buying the cheap tickets does carry the risk that if you need to make any changes later it'll be expensive. Chalk it up to a lesson learned for the future. I realize 300 pounds is a lot for a student budget, but perhaps it is worth it to save your vacation.

Good luck!

CarlyF, I am afraid this does not look good for you. As iwillflytheworld correctly points out, buying a cheap fare has its risks. Sure, you can change it, but you will have to pay a 'change fee' (which can be quite substantial in itself) as well as the difference in price between the 'fare bucket' of the ticket you bought and the bucket of which there are still seats available on the flight of your choice. The problem in your case is that in the first week of January very many visitors will want to go home and flights are full. I had a quick look at availability between 4 and 11 January on SA220 (which is the CPT/LHR flight I presume you are on) and my guess is thatyou have little chance of anything cheap opening up. For instance, on 4 January the flight is now (4 months out) completely sold out (well, 3 seats left in Business but I guess that does not count in your case ;)). On the 5th, there are 7 seats left at full fare (Y bucket) after that it is a bit (but not a lot better). As we are still 4 months out, many of these seats will still be sold at the higher price. SA will undoubtedly overbook (as all airlines do), so the chance of getting something at the airport are not all that good either.

I do hope you will still be able to come to CPT. Its a stunning place in summer!