I originally booked SIN-DOH-JFK with a 13-hour layover because I was scheduled to have a meeting in Doha shortly after arrival, and because I wanted to get some rest at the hotel before my next flight. Unfortunately, the flight SIN-DOH was delayed almost 3 hours at the gate in SIN due to an engine issue. My connection to JFK was safe, however I missed my meeting. As a consequence, my next destination had to be YUL where I had to attend another meeting, rather than JFK.

I was booked on a R-fare and I was told in DOH that it would cost 1500 QAR to change my destination from JFK to YUL. It would mean I would depart at 8am instead of 2am and would have more time at the hotel. I mentioned that the only reason I needed to change the destination was because of the flight delay rather than my own change of heart. EF showed plenty of J availability (9) for both JFK and YUL, and quickly checking at live fares, a one-way to YUL was a bit cheaper than JFK on that day.

I am assuming an airline is not required to make an itinerary change like this for free given that I did not miss my connection, correct? I asked anyway because I had nothing to lose and I thought perhaps I can get lucky. The ticketing agent referred me to a supervisor and they ended up making the change for free. I think they did not have to do this, but it was not going to cost the airline more money to fly me to YUL rather than JFK, and they are making a customer happy.

That experience made me wonder in which circumstances does an airline (or QR specifically) provide free changes in itinerary? Surely if I had asked to be flown to a non-QR destination it would be a no-go because QR would have to pay AA for an extra flight once in North America. Or if my new destination was for a significantly longer flight than JFK then I think my request would not be reasonable either.

Has someone come across such situations?