Ticket Change/Reissue Policy Adjustment
 

I noticed this in my mileage plan statement today:

"For tickets purchased on or after February 24, 2010, any changes to the itinerary will be processed differently. When making a change to a ticket, only the segment that is being changed will be re-priced. The new segment will be priced at the lowest qualifying fare at the time of the change. This may result in a lower or higher difference in fare. As a reminder, for same day travel, you can change to an earlier or later flight and get a confirmed seat for a flat fee of just $25"

This is a little confusing to me, because that's how I thought it already worked. What were the rules before? Is this good or bad for me?

I'm trying to figure that out as well. In the (perhaps distant) past, if you purchased a RT ticket and wanted to change the return after you'd flown the outbound, there was no additional fare as long as the same fare class was available. That wasn't necessarily the same as the identical dollar fare being available.

So I can see where this might cost me more if the segment is being treated as a one-way ticket and it's based on dollar amount for the lowest currently available fare, not identical fare class. It's not the "treating it as a one-way ticket" part that's likely to bite or benefit one, since all AS RTs are effectively two one-way tickets bundled together in terms of schedule and pricing. But, if this is a switch from fare class equivalence to dollar fare, it might. And it could work both ways, depending on demand and how close to the flight date one is when one makes the change.

Anyone with a knowledge of ticketing have any insight?

You pretty much have the gist of it.

The RT "protection" of not having to requalify for the advance purchases for changes to the return no longer applies.

When we went to OW fares a few years ago, we kept that feature, even though we dropped the actual round trip requirement.

That business rule will change effective Feb 24, 2010, in part to accomodate the new "residual value" feature for my wallet that launches the same day.

So... bad news is that your "returns" no longer have that "if the same class of service is available then theres no add collect" protection.

The Good news is that now any "extra" ticket value will be deposited into your my wallet, so you won't have to deal with "faring up" your ticket to keep all the value, or losing part of the value of your non-refundable ticket.

The other good news is that now there is really no reason for MVP Golds NOT to book one-way itineraries and get that extra 1K bonus miles from your AS Visa.

and also remember, the $25 confirmed standby option through Web Check In is still available for last minute changes

Would this only be true for MVPG (not MVP) given that if I were to change or cancel both legs, the $75 would be assessed on each leg instead of once for the entire itinerary?

This is still a little confusing to me (partly because I think I never actually saw the RT protection factor kick in), but here's what I get out of it as it applies to most consumers who buy tickets well ahead of time at the lowest cost possible:

Changes to existing tickets will now be equivalent to refunding the price of the leg in question to your My Wallet, and then immediately buying the new leg at the lowest available price. If there's money left over, you keep it in your wallet, if there's money due, you pay for it immediately. It doesn't matter if you're changing the outbound or inbound portions, or whether you've started your trip or not. Is that about right?

It makes the rules consistent but means that extending a stay by a few days after your trip has started will now likely be much more expensive than before.

that is true.. I'll edit my post

yep.

When you change a ticket, the price of your new flight will always be

(price of the flight as currently published) minus (whatever you paid for your original flight) plus change fee if applicable

Can change fees be paid out of My Wallet funds? So if a non-MVPG wanted to change to a flight that was $50 cheaper, would they only have to pay $25? Or would they have to pay $75 and be stuck with $50 in My Wallet funds?

you have to pay the change fee separately

That would discourage changes on the iternary after you purchased the ticket, as fares always go up when you are near the departure dates. I have made last minute changes on my return flight a lot because of changes in meeting times/project durations, so this new policy will have a negative impact on my travel costs :(

And we are talking up AS improvements in the last 6 years.....

Agreed. Although I have been 100% successful moving flights within 24 hours (even to next/previous day) due to AS' generous standby policy, which is usually enough to accommodate my last-minute schedule changes.

You might count one of AS' improvements as NOT sinking as low as AA, who is yanking free standby from non-elites.

Ugh. I can see, as MissyD pointed out, where this change has both positive and negative aspects. I do, however, admit that when my plans were definite for the outbound but indefinite for the return I'd always book as a R/T so that all I had to do was find an alternate return flight in the same fare class to avoid paying add-collect. This new approach is more like the LCC pricing/ticketing model and I don't think I like it very much and I'm sure many business travelers will agree. If you book a trip for a meeting or project 2-3 weeks in advance to take advantage of lower fares but then need to stay an extra day (or finish a day early) you, or your company or client, might pay dearly for it. :td:

That's probably what I have to do more often from now on--same day stand by. As for AA, I have always avoided them, especially we get no bennies from them, not even priority boarding for MVPG.

New Ticket Change and Reissue Process
 

I just noticed the following in the e-Statement email sent out today:

"New Ticket Change and Reissue Process"

"For tickets purchased on or after March 24, 2010, when making a change to a ticket, the segment that is being changed will be re-priced. The new segment will be priced at the lowest qualifying fare at the time of the change. This may result in a lower or higher difference in fare. As a reminder, for same day travel, you can change to an earlier or later flight and get a confirmed seat for a flat fee of just $25."


...and I have to be honest but I can't pin point the exact difference from the current process we have today. Is it that now they will just re-price the new segment instead of the whole ticket? (which would be a nice thing) or did things get worse and I'm just not realizing it?

anyone want to take a shot of what the change actually is? :)

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/alask...djustment.html See post #3 :)