Originally Posted by
BeanTownBoy
Just yesterday I changed a CO.com reservation from a deeply discounted IAH/BOS roundtrip to full Y IAH/SFO and SFO/BOS legs, keeping my I-class fare on the return IAH/BOS leg. The add-on was over $1400, including a $100change fee. Since converting a two-leg to three legs cannot be done on-line, I worked this through a telephone agent. Even though I was buying two full-Y legs, I could not convince the agent to waive the change fee (fair enough--I didn't argue the point). When I received my e-mail intinerary confirmation, I saw that I had a disconnect with the telephone agent and had been booked for an 11 am flight rather than an 11 pm flight on one of the Y legs. Calling up CO.com again, I explained the misunderstanding and was to be charged another $100 change fee, even though I was changing only one of the Y legs. The very nice telephone rep eventually waived the additional $100 fee, but I was a little surprised that the fee was applicable to a change to Y legs. Perhaps the change fee applies if there is a restricted leg anywhere in your fare?
Now that's interesting! In theory, the most restrictive fare rules apply to your entire itinerary. So because of your 'I' fare BOS-IAH, those rules apply to the whole ticket...including the fact that 'I' is usually not refundable, unlike 'Y'.
However, my experience with CO says otherwise. I've mixed and matched fare classes before including 'O' & 'H'. The H was unrestricted, but the 'O' wasn't. I flew the outbound ('O') and had to change the return which was booked in 'H'. Apparently the agent only looked up the 'H' rules because she let me change to a different day with no problem and no charge -- fare class stayed the same. Had she looked up the 'O' rules, I think she should have charged me the $100 change fee.
I think the rules are different, however, when you change the entire ticket and not just the return after you fly the outbound. That may have had something to do with my situation.