Originally Posted by
Semphyra
This is a hard problem, so excuse me beforehand if I ask something basic:
- How did you check if the fare bucket is available? Note that availability is not the same between the True O&D and each of its segments by separate, specially between Domestic-International or Regional-Long Haul connections. Also the availability differs by ticketing country
- Is your fare still valid within the Stay and Advance Purchase restrictions?
- Did you consider the extra taxes for staying in the stopover?
If after this everything still sounds good, then you may need to HUACA. A lot of agents don't have experience for these situations
Thank you for the insight and helping me further my knowledge.
First, I started by checking availability on ExpertFlyer by searching point-to-point but then thought that because my return is five flights all with transits, married segments may be involved so I began searching point A to point C via point B (e.g. instead of searching GIG-GRU and GRU-SCL I searched for GIG-SCL via GRU). There was still no issue with availability. I was looking at US POS as I booked through a US-based OTA and have been calling the LATAM US number. (Incidentally, in three calls, no agent has told me to go back to the OTA but has instead been happy to price up a change.)
I don't know a way of searching for availability on all five return legs as one journey. However, that's not what I'm wanting to do anyway. As it stands I fly A-B-C-D-E-F (stop) -E-D-C-B-A (i.e. the inbound is the same as the outbound). I would like to change it to A-B-C-D-E-F-E-D (stop) -C-B-A so I wouldn't actually be looking to search E-A availability anyway as I'm introducing a stopover on the return journey, rather than having the stopover at the destination point.
Second, the fare has no minimum stay requirement. As for AP restrictions:
CONFIRMED RESERVATIONS ARE REQUIRED FOR ALL SECTORS.
GENERAL RULE - APPLY UNLESS OTHERWISE SPECIFIED
ORIGINATING JAPAN -
CONFIRMED RESERVATIONS ARE REQUIRED FOR ALL SECTORS.
WHEN RESERVATIONS ARE MADE AT LEAST 97 DAYS BEFORE
DEPARTURE, TICKETING MUST BE COMPLETED WITHIN 14
DAYS AFTER RESERVATIONS ARE MADE.
OR - CONFIRMED RESERVATIONS ARE REQUIRED FOR ALL
SECTORS.
WHEN RESERVATIONS ARE MADE AT LEAST 15 DAYS
BEFORE DEPARTURE, TICKETING MUST BE COMPLETED
WITHIN 7 DAYS AFTER RESERVATIONS ARE MADE.
OR - CONFIRMED RESERVATIONS ARE REQUIRED FOR ALL
SECTORS.
TICKETING MUST BE COMPLETED WITHIN 3 DAYS AFTER
RESERVATIONS ARE MADE.
ORIGINATING BRAZIL -
CONFIRMED RESERVATIONS ARE REQUIRED FOR ALL SECTORS.
WHEN RESERVATIONS ARE MADE AT LEAST 22 DAYS BEFORE
DEPARTURE, TICKETING MUST BE COMPLETED WITHIN 5 DAYS
AFTER RESERVATIONS ARE MADE.
OR - CONFIRMED RESERVATIONS ARE REQUIRED FOR ALL
SECTORS.
WHEN RESERVATIONS ARE MADE AT LEAST 8 DAYS
BEFORE DEPARTURE, TICKETING MUST BE COMPLETED
WITHIN 72 HOURS AFTER RESERVATIONS ARE MADE.
OR - CONFIRMED RESERVATIONS ARE REQUIRED FOR ALL
SECTORS.
WHEN RESERVATIONS ARE MADE AT LEAST 3 DAYS
BEFORE DEPARTURE, TICKETING MUST BE COMPLETED
WITHIN 24 HOURS AFTER RESERVATIONS ARE MADE.
OR - CONFIRMED RESERVATIONS ARE REQUIRED FOR ALL
SECTORS.
WHEN RESERVATIONS ARE MADE AT LEAST 6 HOURS
BEFORE DEPARTURE, TICKETING MUST BE COMPLETED AT
LEAST 5 HOURS BEFORE DEPARTURE.
OR - CONFIRMED RESERVATIONS ARE REQUIRED FOR ALL
SECTORS
TICKETING MUST BE COMPLETED AT LEAST 1 HOUR
BEFORE DEPARTURE
I'm looking to change my original departure date from 15 December to 13 December so I think I'm fine there as well.
Third, no, I had no considered the extra taxes for the new stopover. However, it is still only one stopover but LATAM wants to charge me $1700. Taxes aren't the issue, it seems.