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Old Mar 24, 2017, 12:22 pm
  #5  
jsloan
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Join Date: Oct 2001
Location: Austin, TX
Posts: 21,186
Originally Posted by FlyGirl001
How is the fare differential calculated. Is the difference between the original and a round trip with a new return date?

Is the change going to price out close to as if two one ways purchased originally?
That depends upon the fare construction* and fare rules. In many cases, if you are only changing the return flight and there is inventory available in the original fare bucket (P), you may not need to pay a fare difference at all. In other cases, it will be the difference between what you paid and the current price for a round-trip (it depends upon the specific wording regarding advance purchase restrictions in the ticket).

If you initiate the change after flying the outbound -- that is, from PEK -- the difference will be half the round-trip price between the P fare you paid and the fare class you actually flew (Z, D, C, J), if different. You will not have to worry about advance purchase restrictions or the current fare on the route, just the fare-bucket availability. In other words, 9 times out of 10, this is your best bet. You can call 800 #s for free using Skype.

It will not price out as two one-ways.

* This is particularly complicated, but essentially -- it will be simpler if your ticket was priced as a AUS-PEK through fare. It's possible, however, that you actually purchased a ticket with a fare break at SFO -- meaning that you paid for AUS-SFO and then SFO-PEK separately. In that case, the AUS-SFO flight would actually be an "instant upgrade" fare, which could complicate the inventory search; you would need to find a flight with P inventory plus inventory in whatever coach bucket the fare is tied to. The same basic principles apply, but it would be harder to tell in advance what the cost of the change would be.
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