Have a fairly simple round trip itinerary in January (AAA-BBB-AAA) booked as a flexible/refundable C class that I need to look at making more complicated (AAA-BBB as booked, BBB-CCC on date that was originally AAA-BBB, then CCC-AAA two days later). All domestic.
Trying to figure out what those options are un UA.com gets me this glorious bit of error
For pricing 0, unable to parse FareCalculation. Possible problem: There were 4 segments found in the farecalc, but only 3 coupons provided in the query. If the query has been correctly specified, perhaps the missing coupons represent flown segments at the beginning of the journey? Coupons provided: UA AAA-ORD UA ORD-BBB UA BBB-ORD Farecalc segments: UA AAA-CHI UA CHI-BBB UA BBB-CHI UA CHI-AAA
So it seems the PNR is broken (guessing it's detritus from a schedule change where UA's computers thought I'd be happy to take a CR2 instead of the 73G it was when I booked it. Not flying a CR2, and reservations found an alternate that would be acceptable but I digress)
Called the 1K desk and mentioned the error and asked about getting the PNR fixed up so I could see what my options were rather than dragging every possible option out of the agent when I might not even book it
"It will be a $200 change fee plus the fare difference."
"Uh... this is a flexible fare; I didn't think there was a penalty for changes according to the fare rules"
"Well, it was but if you're adding a segment, that means you have to pay the change fee plus the ticket will reprice"
"Um... ok, uh... are you sure about the change fee? I know the ticket will refare but there shouldn't be a change fee?"
"Absolutely, any time you add a city to a ticket you're going to get charged the change fee even if it's a flexible ticket"
"Ek. Oh, well, can you fix up the PNR so that I can at least see what those costs would be?"
"You're honestly going to be better off just forgetting about this ticket and booking a new one... the change fee is going to get you..."
"So nothing you can do to the PNR?"
"Nope... like I said, you should just book a new ticket"
Whaa?
So two questions:
1- How can I get the PNR fixed up so I can actually try to price changes?
2- Is there some rule I've missed about adding a city to a ticket attracting a change fee on a unrestricted ticket? (Again *change fee* vs. repricing the ticket which I expect)
Fare bassis is MAA0AFFY and penalties section is "Exchange - change to 1st ticketed flight coupon or wholly unused ticket -- Residual value may be refunded or applied toward most domestic or international new ticket purchase at current fare levels. Any difference in fare / tax collected/refunded at time of ticket exchange" "No charge or highest fee of only changed fare components" -- which I'm pretty sure means no change fee.