Need advice: one of two in joined reservation needs to change return flight
Sorry in advance if this is a boneheaded question:
My wife and I bought tix SFO-EWR/JFK-SFO, and have used her miles to upgrade on the flight home.
Now it turns out that I need to extend my trip, but my wife needs to return on the scheduled date.
I assume this means that they have to sever our reservations. Is there a right way to do this and a wrong way, or are we at the agent's mercy?
I have a feeling that means that she'll lose the upgrade on the return, no? But since we're departing when planned we won't need to have totally new tickets issued, will we?
It's no problem, she won't lose her upgrade. They will split you off to a separate PNR and yes your ticket will have to be reissued and re-fared, but hers won't. After you begin travel you can change your return without re-ticketing the whole reservation. You would just pay the change fee and would only have to pay a fare difference if your fare bucket is not available on the flight you're trying to change to.
After you begin travel you can change your return without re-ticketing the whole reservation. You would just pay the change fee and would only have to pay a fare difference if your fare bucket is not available on the flight you're trying to change to.
I was wondering about that. I thought that I'd only need to pay the fare difference if I changed the outbound flight, but your comment leads me to think I should wait until after departure to change the return (depending on the difference in fare of course).
Location: What I write is my opinion alone..don't read into it anything not written.
Posts: 3,341
Quote:
Originally Posted by zooey91
Thanks, that's a relief.
I was wondering about that. I thought that I'd only need to pay the fare difference if I changed the outbound flight, but your comment leads me to think I should wait until after departure to change the return (depending on the difference in fare of course).
No!
Do it ASAP.
Your return still may have an advanced purchases. If you do it within that AP (say it requires a 7 day advanced purchase and you wait till 5 days prior to return) then you will have to refare that segment.
Advanced purchase requirements must be met for each segment. Normally, the most restrictive one is the outbound (as it is closer to the booking date than the return) but the return can still be voided if you change to something with less than the qualifying period.
No!
Do it ASAP.
Your return still may have an advanced purchases. If you do it within that AP (say it requires a 7 day advanced purchase and you wait till 5 days prior to return) then you will have to refare that segment.
Advanced purchase requirements must be met for each segment. Normally, the most restrictive one is the outbound (as it is closer to the booking date than the return) but the return can still be voided if you change to something with less than the qualifying period.
Not exactly.
There is no "advance purchase" for the return.
So long as the new return date meets the ORIGINAL fare rules and the original booking class is available, all you pay after departure is a change fee. Before departure, you're on the hook for all changes in fares as well as the change fee.
So, yes, do wait until after departure. Unless your projected itinerary today prices at less than what you paid originally, in which case you can do it now, or if there is very limited space in your original booking class.
Location: What I write is my opinion alone..don't read into it anything not written.
Posts: 3,341
Quote:
Originally Posted by stevenshev
Not exactly.
There is no "advance purchase" for the return.
So long as the new return date meets the ORIGINAL fare rules and the original booking class is available, all you pay after departure is a change fee. Before departure, you're on the hook for all changes in fares as well as the change fee.
So, yes, do wait until after departure. Unless your projected itinerary today prices at less than what you paid originally, in which case you can do it now, or if there is very limited space in your original booking class.
We are both right....you are assuming that all original booking class and flight (day of week...) restrictions are met on the new return, I assumed the other.
I always make a worst case scenario, and if better than that, then everyone is happy, but I guess we don't know what the new return is and what the fare rules on the ticket are.
I just had to do this for PER-SIN (on SQ) and SIN-SFO (on UA), moving Mrs C and C Jr to different dates. No real issue (apart from some minor competence issues with the non-ICC agent). There was NC space so they preserved their upgrades as well, but more shockingly, it cost me $250 each to make the change on UA (H fare). The change on SQ (E fare) was absolutely free of charge.
I still can't get over the $250 - I'm still not sure it was worth it!
This is definitely more complicated than I thought, but if my boss can get his act together and commit to the need for me to extend the trip is over a month away and the fares at the moment are about $50 cheaper than when I purchased.
So it sounds like the best bet is to explore doing this now so I can increase my chances of upgrading on the return (and so we can get decent seats on the outbound, as separating our reservations will boot my wife out of E+ until I can get her outbound res associated with mine).
