Originally Posted by
angelfish11
Thanks for your replies! I understand that the pre-March 31 United no change fee policy on new international flight bookings starting ex-USA I was trying to get by rushing and booking before March 31 would not apply anyway to this LH fare (where fare rules say "Rule Application - Fare Rules Text Lufthansa Restricted Fare"). I think I just have to worry aobut the fares going up but about not losing out on what I thought was a no change fee bonus for booking pre-March 31.
I'm not sure that I'd make that assumption. UA and LH cooperate on TATL fares, and if UA decides not to extend its waiver, it's entirely possible that new fares could be published on April 1 that restore the change fee. Will your daughter's ticket also use FFC? If not, your best option might be to book hers through LH. They have extended their change fee waiver for LH fares to May 31 for all tickets except those originating in Japan:
https://www.lufthansa.com/us/en/exte...ooking-options (last item: "I would like to make a new booking").
Originally Posted by
angelfish11
One of our planned tickets (for daughter who has to travel separately MEX-FRA and then FRA-JFK, all LH) looks like a hybrid - MEX-FRA does not say "Lufthansa Restricted Fare" but FRA-JFK does.
It has different rules - only the FRA-JFK L fare says "Lufthansa Restricted Fare" but the outbound MEX-FRA B fare says: "FARE BY RULE - NO RESTRICTIONS RULE APPLICATION - FARE RULES - TEXT TRANSATLANTIC EXCURSION FARES FROM AREA 1 TO AREA 2 APPLICATION AREA THESE FARES APPLY FROM AREA 1 TO AREA 2. CLASS OF SERVICE THESE FARES APPLY FOR ECONOMY CLASS SERVICE. CAPACITY LIMITATIONS THE CARRIER SHALL LIMIT THE NUMBER OF PASSENGERS CARRIED ON ANY ONE FLIGHT AT FARES GOVERNED BY THIS RULE AND SUCH FARES WILL NOT NECESSARILY BE AVAILABLE ON ALL FLIGHTS. THE NUMBER OF SEATS WHICH THE CARRIER SHALL MAKE AVAILABLE ON A GIVEN FLIGHT WILL BE DETERMINED BY THE CARRIERS BEST JUDGMENT"
Nowhere does this B fare say "Lufthansa" in the fare rules text - is this MEX-FRA leg a UA fare then? If a UA fare, better to book by March 31 then or does it not matter if it is a B fare? Thanks for your expertise!!! It looks as if no change fees apply to MEX-FRA:
You've quoted the voluntary changes section, which covers the mechanics of the change but doesn't actually include the charges, if any. Those would be in the 'penalties' section. For a B fare, I'd expect there to be no change fee -- a B fare is generally quite expensive. (For a couple of sample dates I put into the calendar, I got $1400 on a half-round-trip basis for the MEX-FRA leg in a B fare, compared to $443 for a V fare if it had been available).
In a quick survey, I don't see any B fares that start with FARE BY RULE for either UA or LH. FARE BY RULE would be pretty unusual for a B fare -- that's text that appears for fares that are calculated from a base fare using a rule (e.g., "start with the regular Q fare, apply the basic economy restrictions, and drop the price by $35."). B fares normally stand alone.
If you can provide travel dates, we should be able to look the (current) fares up. FWIW, that same quick look at the fares for MEX-FRA tells me that if you have UA flight numbers, you're buying a UA fare, but if you have LH flight numbers, you're buying an LH fare, regardless of who's operating the flight. That's not always the case, but it appears to be true on that particular route.