I'm posting a message on my favorite travel forum to see what help I can receive from you, AMEX Travel and/or possibly the airline I booked with.

I booked what was meant to be a dream trip to Phuket and Singapore in October 2008 for May 2009. I just received an e-mail from AMEX about 30 mintues ago stating that my reservation on Asiana Airlines was changed. Here are the original details for the flight from LAX-Phuket:

Depart LAX May 17 at 1:30PM
Arrive ICN May 19 at 6:30PM
Depart ICN May 19 at 8:15PM
Arrive HKT May 20 at 1:00AM

It has now been changed to:

Depart LAX May 17 at 1:30PM
Arrive ICN May 19 at 6:30PM
Depart ICN May 20 at 8:15PM
Arrive HKT May 21 at 1:00AM

I immediately called AMEX Travel and inquired about the change, and was told Asiana deemed the 1 hour 45 minute connection time between the LAX-ICN and ICN-HKT flights to be too short. The CSR called Asiana and put me though with an Asiana CSR who offered to change the LAX-ICN flight to May 16, a day earlier. I did not take her up on the offer for a variety of reasons:

- I would have to change my flight from EWR-LAX yet again and be charged $150
- I would have to book a hotel in Seoul
- I would have to change my trip insurance information (if I could do that at all)

When I declined her offer, I did not get a response and the telephone line went dead.

Now, even though Seoul is not a bad place to spend 24 hours, I was not planning on it (obviously). It means more money out of my pocket, less time in Phuket, changing hotel reservations in Phuket and more hassle.

Before I called AMEX, I figured the flight was changed because Asiana had not sold enough tickets for the flight I was originally booked on and bumped every one over to other flight. However, as mentioned above, the flight was changed because Asiana believes 1 hour 45 minutes is not enough time to connect flights. My problem is that AMEX Travel advertised and allowed me to purchase the flight to begin with. I did not choose the flights with the shortest layover time (indeed, the layover in Seoul between SIN-ICN and ICN-LAX on the return leg is 10 hours). I chose the cheapest flight that AMEX listed.

So what ideas do you guys have? Just suck it up, pay for a hotel and airport transfers in Seoul and try to change my Phuket hotel reservations? Arrive in Seoul and try to get on the original flight?