Originally Posted by
nikolask
I finally got this sorted after nearly three hours of phone calls with ET and A3. ET was helpful though some agents were clearly not very knowledgeable.
At first I was told I could change my ticket to BER-CPT via LHR or FRA with the longhaul legs on ET and was put on a waitlist with confirmation expected within minutes. Nothing was coming through, so I called again and another ET agent checked with the reservations department and supervisors confirming 100% that the departure point cannot be changed on award tickets from other airlines even in such cases. I tried quoting EC261 but I didn't have much luck. I decided to book a last-minute separate flight from BER to FRA (since the train was even more expensive) just to be done with it. A lot of hassle and I wish it hadn’t happened since it cost me the whole evening researching options.
Thanks for reporting back, and sorry to hear you didn't get your preferred outcome. Conflicting info from different agents giving all sorts of excuses mirrors my own experience with ET. I did manage to get my departure changed from ATH to BRU when the ATH-ADD leg was cancelled, but it was like pulling teeth and involved a good amount of HUACA. This was in Y, one would have hoped for some more flexibility in J.