FlyerTalk Forums - View Single Post - Help reading fare rules for changing return

Jan 12, 2016 | 2:13 pm

#1

stephem

Join Date: Nov 2004

Location: Manhattan Beach, California

Programs: BMI Diamond Club Gold forever

Posts: 6,878

Help reading fare rules for changing return

I have a few tickets hanging out there where I have flown the outbound and need to see about making a change to the return that involves parsing the routing rules carefully. This one is a BA ticket, but the rules interpretation is airline agnostic (so I'd ask mods to not move it to the BA forum, since I think the general routing expertise is probably here). I've called BA already and they were helpless, so before I push to escalate, I need to confirm my reading of the "Transfers" and "flight application" sections of the rules.

I am currently booked SEA-LHR-GVA-LHR-SEA, the fare is I class and it has a $400 change/reissue fee. I'd like to change the return to GVA-LHR-YVR-SEA(AS), since the YVR flight is a couple of hours later and gives me some time I need in London that afternoon.

Transfers:

Code:

UNLESS OTHERWISE SPECIFIED 2 TRANSFERS PERMITTED IN EACH DIRECTION FREE
      2 FREE IN EUROPE IN EACH DIRECTION.
  AND - 
      2 TRANSFERS PERMITTED IN EACH DIRECTION FREE
            1 FREE BETWEEN AA/AY/BA/IB/US AND AS IN LAX/PDX/SEA IN EACH DIRECTION
            1 FREE BETWEEN AA/BA/IB/US AND AM IN MEXICO IN EACH DIRECTION
            1 FREE BETWEEN BA AND AC IN CANADA IN EACH DIRECTION
            1 FREE BETWEEN AA/BA/US AND WS IN CANADA IN EACH DIRECTION
            1 FREE BETWEEN AA/AY/BA/IB/US AND HA IN HAWAII IN EACH DIRECTION
            2 FREE BETWEEN AA/AY/BA/IB/US AND AA/AY/BA/IB IN NORTH AMERICA IN EACH DIRECTION
          FARE BREAK SURFACE SECTORS NOT PERMITTED AND EMBEDDED SURFACE SECTORS PERMITTED ON THE FARE COMPONENT.

Flight Application: (I have excerpted the only two sections that talk about Canada or Alaska Airlines specifically)

Code:

THE FARE COMPONENT MUST NOT BE ON ONE OR MORE OF THE FOLLOWING
        ANY AA FLIGHT OPERATED BY AS
        AS FLIGHTS 1000 THROUGH 1999
        AS FLIGHTS 3000 THROUGH 3274
        AS FLIGHTS 3350 THROUGH 7299
        AS FLIGHTS 7310 THROUGH 9999.
AND
* * * *

IF THE FARE COMPONENT INCLUDES TRAVEL BETWEEN CANADA AND THE UNITED STATES/MEXICO
      THEN THAT TRAVEL MUST NOT BE ON ONE OR MORE OF THE FOLLOWING
        ANY AC FLIGHT
        ANY AM FLIGHT.

The AS flight from YVR would be in the 2xxx range, so that is not disallowed under the flights. Where I am hung up is on the transfers. The transfers section contemplates a connection in Canada, but it looks like it has to be:

to AC (not allowed under the flight rules),
to AA (no AA metal and AS operated not allowed under the flight rules),
to BA (BA doesn't seem to put a codeshare on the AS flights between YVR-SEA)
to WS (allowed under transfers, not prohibited by flight application, but the only WS numbered flight is a DL codeshare)
transfers to AS are not specifically called out (so I don't think that is allowed)

The WS coded DL flight seems like it should be allowed, there is nothing in the flight application that prohibits a WS coded, DL operated flight. Am I correct that I should be able to use the WS coded flight between YVR-SEA?

Also, what about the lack of a transfer to AS in Canada being specified in the transfer section, does that mean I cannot use the AS 2xxx series flight from YVR-SEA?

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