Despite all the apologists throwing silly rationalizations of what isn’t possible, happy to note that this matter was resolved via an email exchange with customer care.

Keeping original routing on the previous day with 11A unblocked for me. Was done quickly without a fuss. They had blocked the seats for me when they contacted via email with a tentative itinerary so after receiving my affirmation by email, they were able to book the new itinerary and reissue ticket. Like I said all these are easily done if the willingness is there.

The only difference from my expected handling was not pro-actively offering alternatives (so I had to give them the besf choices indicating any of those would be fine) which they could have easily done themselves around the schedule change date. Rather than the horrendous connection from dumb automation. And not offering a direct rebooking channel by phone or email until I didnt a cept their initial boilerplate response to the complaint to customer care.

The key to getting good customer service is (1) not make apologies for less than good service (2) be firm, realistic and polite in asking for better handling.

It is to their credit though that they handled it well after (2) above. That is what I would expect from an airline that bills itself as world class and demands a premium for it.

And don’t listen to naysayers on this board.