djwald

Hi there - I recently bought a ticket for ~1,800 Euro. I need to change the dates of flying and when I called up with the new dates, I was told there would be a fair difference charged plus the transaction fee of 300 Euro. I understand this, as this was the conditions of the fair I bought.

However, I was quoted minimum 1000 Euros just for the fair, even though on the same dates I wanted to change, the fair quoted online was either the same or slightly higher.

When I questioned the AA agent, he stumbled and tried to tell me many reasons why (EG: Market demand, transaction fees, etc...) but none of it made sense. He even tried to tell me I should call back closer to the time of the olympics because there will be more flights.

I even tried for new dates 3 months in advance that were showing a similar price online but again, the quote was 1000 Euro 'fair difference' + 300 Euro transaction fee.

Does anyone have any insight here? Do I have to bite the bullet and just pay or am I doing something wrong?

Many thanks
Daniel

GB

Hang up and call again. Bad agent.

ericgdukie44

May be able to change it online as well.

FlyerTalker688786

Without knowing your ticket condition, I can only guess your original booked fare class is no longer available for that day you intended to travel, or your new date of travel violated minimum/maximum stay criteria, or your new date involved with a new seasonality.

Judging from the fare you paid, I assume it is business class booked in I or R fare. It is possible that those two classes are no longer for sale on the day you wish to travel thus only C or D or J (for instance, only using as example), and that would attract a higher fare. 1,000 fare difference is entirely possible for business class fares.

ijgordon

If you're changing the outbound segment, then essentially you need to buy a new ticket at the current going rate plus pay the change fee, less the value of your original ticket.
It's possible that the fare you see online is an online-only fare, and that the agent can only quote you a higher fare. Doing the change online yourself should let you work around that.

ThreeJulietTango

This would be my guess as well.

When you say that the fare was the same or slightly higher, was that for the exact same flights? Was that now or when you first bought the ticket?

sinoflyer

The agent was actually very helpful to you with suggestions. They only didn't make sense to you because they weren't what you wanted to hear.

Fares are determined by:
1) fare bucket availability;
2) fare availability

Chances are, if you are looking into various future dates and still getting a fare difference of ~ 1000 Euros, then the fare you originally purchased is no longer being offered even though there are plenty of seats in the fare bucket available. In that case, checking back at a later time to see if new fares will be offered is a good advice.

rjw242

Did you miss this part?:

If the fare quoted by the agent is 1000 euros higher than the ones shown online (and if the fares online are in fact purchasable and are not "phantom availability"), then the agent is clearly doing something wrong.

For the record, this has happened to me a few times: I know from online research that my change fee + fare difference should be a couple hundred dollars, a phone agent quotes me over a thousand, I hang up and call back to get a competent agent and they charge me correctly.

sinoflyer

Okay, I misread "same fare quoted online" to mean the same additional 1000 Euros as was quoted on the phone.

In that case, I would call back and ask for a fare quote without giving information about the existing ticket. It could be something in the CRS that doesn't process the unchanged portion of the original ticket properly, so that you end up getting an unreasonably high quote. When you start with a fresh new booking, you should get the identical fare as is quoted online.

djwald

Thanks for this, but even though I purchased this online, the website will not allow me to change the dates online. Also, the agent told me that he sees the same fares as I do online (when I asked him are there online fares only) I guess I need to keep calling back until I get an agent that knows....

Cheers

Dave Noble

Which AA site are you using and which country's call centre are you using. There can be fares which may be available in some countries only

djwald

Interesting, Dave. I am logging on from Spain. The call agent was based in Fiji. Perhaps I need to call the US number and not Spanish number.

I do recall buying this ticket online when I was in the US. Maybe there is something with that. Perhaps I will try VPN and calling the US call center number.

The plot thickens

djwald

It's not that I didn't want to hear it, it's that he wasn't answering my questions directly. If I have to pay the extra, I am ok with that, but I am just trying to understand why, when it appears not to be that case on the surface.

Often1

Part of this may well be that OP purchased online while in the US and thus most likely on the US website. He is now apparently calling an agent from a # in Spain. Price discrimination would routinely account for vast differences.

Thus, rather than speculating and hurling accusations about incompetent agents when it may well be that what the agent OP reached gave is entirely accurate information, it would be far better if OP were to see if he can replicate what he wants to purchase on the Spanish website.

With that information, he can call AA, ask about booking that ticket and then advise that he wishes to use his original ticket as a credit.

Calling back routinely with AA these days will simply generate PNR notes which assure that he won't untangle this (or that the original agent is correct).