Originally Posted by
makin'miles
Rather than starting a new thread, I thought I'd post my question here.
I booked a TLV-YYZ-YOW/IAD-LHR flight directly with United a few months ago on United ticket stock. TLV-YYZ-YOW was an AC fare and AC aircraft booked in Z class (discount business). IAD-LHR was booked for next April in discount economy. Total fare was about USD2150, the vast majority of that fare for the TLV-YOW, which was flown about a month ago. About USD 100 of the base fare was for the IAD-LHR.
As I now plan to travel, I just called United to change the remaining IAD-LHR coupon to a DCA-EWR-AMS business class fare. They have quoted about $3500 to make this change - agent stated D class is the lowest she could go, but told me she did see B/P available on the flights.
On ITASoftware, I am able to price out an AC TLV-YOW in Z class for a random date in November, and then DCA-EWR-AMS in P class (although DCA-EWR is in B - one cabin) for about $3000 total. B and P class seats are available on the relevant DCA-EWR-AMS legs. The base fare for WAS-AMS is USD 900.
In my mind, I expected to pay somewhere around USD 1200 for the change (the new base of $900 less paid base of about $100, $300 change fee, and any changes to taxes/surcharges).
Any idea why the fare would have jumped so high or suggestions on how to proceed?
In general your question makes sense and it seems like you should be able to do what you want... however without details it's pretty hard to speculate. Have you tried HUCA? In my experience manually pricing tickets doesn't always go quite right.
If you post the full fare construction it's possible your historical Z fare differs from the currently available one, or there is something wrong with the IAD-LHR fare. When did you purchase? Technically you need the WAS-AMS fare table that was published on the date of ticketing, not today:
Code:
OR -
REPRICE USING FARES IN EFFECT WHEN TKT WAS ISSUED
PROVIDED ALL OF THE FOLLOWING CONDITIONS ARE MET-
1. NO CHANGE TO 1ST FLIGHT COUPON
2. WHEN NO INTL COUPONS REMAIN - ALL NEW TRAVEL MUST
BE DOMESTIC
3. FULLY FLOWN FARE NOT REPRICED TO FURTHER POINT
4. ANY CARRIER NORMAL FARES WITH ANY FARE TYPE EXCEPT
EOU/ERU ARE USED
5. PUBLIC FARES ARE USED IF TICKETED FARE IS IN
PUBLIC TARIFF. PRIVATE FARES ARE USED IF TICKETED
FARE IS IN PRIVATE TARIFF
6. NEW TKT HAS EQUAL OR HIGHER VALUE THAN PREVIOUS
TKT
7. ALL RULE AND BOOKING CODE PROVISIONS ARE MET
8. ADV RES IS MEASURED FROM ORIGINAL TKT DATE TO
DEPARTURE OF PRICING UNIT
WHEN CHANGE RESULTS IN LOWER FARE IGNORE RESIDUAL THEN
ADD-COLLECT