I can only give you my travelling student son's example, who's now in Japan...Courtesy of BM/Air New Zealand I first got him a 'free' ticket to get to NZ and then on to Australia and back to NZ. I then got him another freebie from NZ up to Japan...meanwhile, in NZ, he managed to fall in love....'Dad, can you get my ticket changed as I want to stay another few weeks?'..call BM, no problem..'you must get the ticket sent back to us for reissue, and it's £20 to change.'
Send out new ticket...meanwhile I go off on business trip....on morning of his flight to Japan, son goes to Japan Embassy in Auckland to pick up passport with visa...Embassy closed for day due to public holiday in Japan....son panics and decides to call BM direct for help...explains predicament to a very helpful Emma, who says that...against the rules, which demands the return of the ticket as it's on Air NZ, she will call AirNZ and amend their record for the following days flight..She saved the day for him and when I heard about it, I called BM, spoke to her supervisor and thanked her for their help in this situation.Hope this helps.
[This message has been edited by mike turnbull (edited 05-16-2003).]