Originally Posted by
percysmith
Brunos - I'm sorry to hear.
If seats are tight, I'd buy the flex fare (preferably with free rebooking and a reasonably-priced cancel) for the earlier date and redate it as I go along. So I'm ready to scram if the end is near. I'd sleep easier at night.
In the Oriental Daily case the passenger's father passed away and the passenger had to rebook his return to YVR.
If you buy cheap and have to leave earlier you'll face the same struggle as the Oriental Daily passenger trying to get a waiver on the cancellation fee and still you'll be subject to full repricing.
I had bought a ticket to see my father, but he passed away before I could get back. So, I needed to change the departure date to an earlier time and had an unspecified return date (given I didn't know how long it would take to sort out his affairs). Luckily, I had a flex ticket with no change fee, but I got hit with a repricing fee. At the time, I didn't care and just paid whatever to get on the next flight back, but it was during the summer and it was a significant percentage of the total fare. I remember being told that if I ended up coming back on a cheaper date/fare, they wouldn't re-price me down.