Arcanum

I wanted to visit Vietnam before going to Edmonton for a month for work, so I booked YYZ-NRT-SGN-HKG-YVR-YEG-YYZ at AC.com.

YYZ-SGN and SGN-YEG went smoothly. I'm currently scheduled to return home on Dec. 11, flying AC126 YEG-YYZ.

Unfortunately, I now need to be in YXU for a meeting on the morning of Dec. 10. AC can put me on AC154 YEG-YYZ on Dec. 9 for a $50 change fee, getting into Pearson at 23:28. The next airport shuttle leaves at 01:30, arriving in London at 03:30. The meeting's at 07:30, so it wouldn't be a fun night.

I asked about changing to YEG-YXU, but because this is an international ticket they apparently need to recalculate the whole routing, and it'll be $300-400 on top of the $50 change fee.

I came up with a different routing that might work perfectly for me:

YEG-YYC AC8147 14:00 - 14:52
YYC-YXU AC1146 16:05 - 21:32
YXU-YYZ AC7702 06:00+1 - 06:42+1

All of these have W class availability, same as my current YEG-YYZ flight.

1. Would AC reroute me on these flights, given that the final destination (YYZ) and the fare bucket (W) are unchanged?

2. If I get off in YXU (my real final destination) and don't take the YXU-YYZ leg the next day, will there be an issue? I know people ditch the final segment all the time with o/w tickets, but will AC come after me since this is part of an international ticket?

3. In the past, I've had other airlines "invalidate" one sector of an itinerary, e.g. the BNE-MEL leg on a BNE-MEL-LAX flight when I wanted to return from MEL instead. Does AC do something like that?

Thanks in advance for any words of wisdom!

global happy traveller

1. They will still need to recalculate the ticket, because even if the booking class is the same, each leg/flight may have a different pricing pegged to the booking class.

2. If its your last segment, it doesnt matter if you ditch it or not because you wont have latter flights impacted

3. I believe AC doesnt do that (if I recall from reading other threads)

CdnFlier

If it's an allowable routing on your original fare class they would charge the fee and assess the new fare - mind you they're even supposed to do this for same day changes to international tickets (which I've found to be a a huge hassle getting anyone to do..). Your stuck paying whatever change fees they're looking for since there's also a date change.

Arcanum

I called back today to see if YEG-YYC-YXU-YYZ was an allowable routing.

On my first attempt, someone picked as soon as I hit "5" - gotta be a first for that. Alas, she turned out to be a rockin' b!tch, the kind who gives all of CS a bad name. She actually answered the call with "Air Canada. What do you want?" and then flatly insisted that international tickets cannot be changed after departure. Suffice it to say, not much help.

I called back this evening. The first rep, Kevin, was very nice. He politely explained that my situation was a bit complicated and that he would have to transfer me to the international rate desk. The next rep (whose name eludes me, damnit!) was also extremely polite. He immediately informed me that he would have to check the allowable routings and that it could take a few minutes. Rather than make me wait, he offered to call me back instead. Um, what now? Never had that one before! Gold star for the international desk! :-:

I elected to wait since I was at my computer being productive anyways (actually reading FT at work, but that's productive!) After a couple of minutes, he came back and said the routing to YYZ via YXU was not allowed, however, he could just change my final destination to YXU for the fare difference between YEG-YYZ and YEG-YXU - a whopping $60 plus change fee. I told him previous reps had quoted $400 for this, but he assured me it was $60. Done and done!

It's interesting to see AC CS at both its worst and its best on the same day. What a fascinating dichotomy! I wonder what the difference is - different call centres at different times, some happier than others perhaps?

Rejuvenated

This has been discussed many times and I have known people who "no-showed" the final sector of the PNR in various types of routings, both international and domestic. For example, ex-YVR flyers would buy a SEA-YVR-HKG-YVR-SEA and then skip the YVR-SEA portion. But not once have I heard of people being debited for skipping the final sector.

CdnFlier

Good for you! That's excellent.. the other day I made a routing change on the start of a international ticket (first connection in YEG rather than YYC) and I paid more than that for the change

chaptwo

The rates desk in Winnipeg is by far the Super Elite of the entire company. On my numerous RTW tickets, they have saved me over and over...The worst AC service you can get is when you get plugged into Tampa...Truth is, the rates desk are experts and many other, unless you push as you did or call back, simply do not care.

Chaptwo

zkzkz

I didn't even know you could talk the the rate desk. I thought the rate desk was who the call centre people called to get changes made that they didn't have authority to do themselves. In my limited experience that always meant playing broken telephone to get across the reason for the change and what I wanted -- but it's worked out well in the end both times so far.

Arcanum

The nasty woman had a Québécoise accent. Is there a call centre in Québéc, New Brunswick, or Eastern Ontario by chance?

Asking for the Rate Desk is a good trick I intend to remember!

cslusarc

Arcanum,

On this page you can read that you should be able to make a Same-day airport change fee to fly on an earlier flight to YYZ.

If I couldn't change the ticket for an acceptable price, I'd take a nap both before and on your flight (AC126).

Arcanum

Good idea! I hadn't thought of doing a same-day change, although in this case I wanted to change the date too.