Originally Posted by
nort
Thanks all for the clarification.
My return from AAA - HKG - SFO has a connection (<24h) in HKG. On the outbound, (SFO - HKG - AAA), I have a 3 day stopover in HKG and a one week stay at the destination AAA. What I was thinking and my travel agent said is possible is to just delete the HKG - AAA segment on the outbound, and buy a separate ticket from HKG - BBB (stopover for a few days) - AAA. I want to then fly back from AAA - HKG - SFO on the original ticket's return segments.
Seems it's risky or impossible to just delete the HKG - AAA segment without losing the return flight. Instead, if I were to just postpone the HKG - AAA segment, then I could buy a separate round trip ticket from HKG - BBB - HKG, and then fly the HKG - AAA segment a few days later. If I were to change the date of the HKG - AAA, would it be cheaper to do it after flying the first segment (during my stopover in HKG) rather than before? Do they use different fares (current vs originally booked) for repricing before vs after flying the first segment?
Thank you.
Originally Posted by
cxfan1960
Are the flights on separate tickets? As ernestnywang said, an e-ticket must be used in sequence. If you do not fly a segment, you cannot fly any subsequent segments on the same ticket. So you should ask your TA to clarify.
As cxfan1960 correctly pointed out, if HKG-AAA were on a separate ticket to begin with, yes you can choose to no show and it would not impact you (but check if it is refundable and will have value left after the penalty), as it is a stand alone sector on an independent ticket. If this is not the case and your TA still claims that you will be fine without a re-issue (meaning you will get a new e-ticket number that does not include HKG-AAA, with or without payment) without being able to offer you any special documentation from CX (as in that the TA negotiated this special case for you with CX directly), as a part-time TA myself I must beg to doubt whether your TA knows his / her stuffs.
As to whether you should re-issue before or after departure of the first segment, there are some risks that you will have to take. YR has increased in the past few months (and price may or may not be the same, for this we would need very specific information - date of issue, fare basis, and itinerary - on your ticket to figure out), so chances are if you re-issue now, you will have to pay for at least the higher YR if not a higher new fare. If there is an advanced purchase restriction, you might be forced to buy a higher fare. On the other hand, if you wait till your arrival in HKG to change your HKG-AAA flight, by then availability might have run out. Also note that in case everything is on one ticket, then SFO-HKG-AAA is likely one fare component and will have to be priced together. For example, if you have SFO-HKG and HKG-AAA in V class, and right now HKG-AAA has only M class left, you will need to rebook SFO-HKG to M class, too, whether you have flown the segment or not. If you are changing this before first segment is flown, and now SFO-HKG has only H class left, you might not even be able to rebook to M class (this, however, is up to CX's discretion). I know this may seem overly complicated to you, but in short, we can't know with the information we have been provided, and in any case there will be some risks involved.
PS: Back when seat guarantee was possible all the way to V class, it was usually a better idea for GO and DM to re-issue after first segment was flown.
Originally Posted by
Often1
2. If your transfer time is <24 hours, you have a connection.
I believe you meant to say "If your connection time is <24 hours, you have a transfer." Transfer and stopover are the standard fare rule terms.
Last edited by ernestnywang; Dec 12, 2017 at 4:46 pm