Thanks for the kind words. I hope nothing I've said causes you any problems as you work your way round!

I have never had a schedule change on me after I had planned it, largely because I tend to have fairly fluid plans until close to the event. The only tricky thing I've done like that was more or less the reverse when I had a OWE ex-HKG (yes, before I discovered better places) which I was breaking in the middle by coming back LHR-BKK then using a separate ticket to get me BKK-HKG. When I came to the check-in at LHR I managed to persuade them to uplift both coupons and let me get on the direct LHR-HKG flight which was leaving at about the same time as the LHR-BKK.

I have had occasional inventory problems but there's normally been a way round it (fly to LAX instead of SFO or something) and top tier FF cards definitely help. The only time it ever caused me a problem was when I couldn't get on the Friday night CX flight SYD-HKD in D at about 36 hours notice and I had to stay to the next day.

But I quite often have reservations well in advance of the ticketing, and having a TA girlfriend and online access to Abacus from home means I can very easily play around with my itineraries.

[This message has been edited by christep (edited 10-21-2003).]