I bought a domestic ticket on the China Southern website. The fare rules state that the change fee was 10% of the ticket price plus difference in fare, if any. I bought the ticket willing to risk the 10% if I needed to change the ticket.

I needed to change the date to 2 days earlier so went to the website and tried to change the ticket. The message I received was that there was no suitable fare available and it told me to call a phone number for assistance. I was surprised since the same fare class and fare that I paid was available for the same flight, as well as every other flight available on the new date.

I called the number and told the representative what I wanted to do. She looked up the ticket and the new date. Then she told me that it would be 'very expensive' to change the ticket. I told her it should only be 10% and the same fare was available for the new date. She said that the fare I paid was a discounted fare, but on a change I couldn't get the discounted fare, even though it was still available for new tickets. The full fare is about 4 times the fare I paid. She suggested I cancel the ticket and buy a new ticket.

So I bought the new ticket and will cancel the old ticket. The refund fee is 30% of the ticket price so am out more money than I anticipated. The fare isn't really that expensive so the difference between the 10 and 30% is not that big of a deal, but I would have been very unhappy if this had been an expensive ticket. The 10% change fee in the fare rules is quite misleading.

Is this common with other airlines, in China or elsewhere? I have never heard about this occuring. I would like to know if I buy domestic China tickets in the future from other carriers if I need to anticipate this.