Multi-city itinerary changes?
Feb 11, 2018, 6:54 pm
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Feb 2018
Posts: 1
Multi-city itinerary changes?
Apologies if this is discussed elsewhere, I looked through the Newbie FAQ and didn't find what I was looking for....
I booked a multi-city flight back in September for my honeymoon in April:
1. Orlando to Tokyo-Narita
(Stay in Tokyo 3 days)
2. Tokyo to Hong Kong
3. Hong Kong to Bali
(Stay in Bali 12 days)
4. Bali to Dallas
5. Dallas to Orlando
All together, it was maybe $3000.
Since then my fiance asked that we stay in Japan a couple more days. Sure, I say. I look up flights from Tokyo to Bali and find one on a different airline thats fairly cheap and short, extending our stay in Tokyo to five days. When I call AA to cancel flights 2 and 3, here's what they say:
Option 1: cancel 2&3, pay $250 change fee, and pay reticketing fee for 4 and 5. The tickets for 4 and 5 are now $3000. And thats per person, so like $6500.
Option 2: don't show up for 2&3, have the rest of the itinerary cancelled.
Option 3: change 2&3 for a different flight, which was $5000 per person reticketing plus the change fees.
.... Is this accurate? Is there any way around this? I bought trip insurance with Allianz- can they help?
I booked a multi-city flight back in September for my honeymoon in April:
1. Orlando to Tokyo-Narita
(Stay in Tokyo 3 days)
2. Tokyo to Hong Kong
3. Hong Kong to Bali
(Stay in Bali 12 days)
4. Bali to Dallas
5. Dallas to Orlando
All together, it was maybe $3000.
Since then my fiance asked that we stay in Japan a couple more days. Sure, I say. I look up flights from Tokyo to Bali and find one on a different airline thats fairly cheap and short, extending our stay in Tokyo to five days. When I call AA to cancel flights 2 and 3, here's what they say:
Option 1: cancel 2&3, pay $250 change fee, and pay reticketing fee for 4 and 5. The tickets for 4 and 5 are now $3000. And thats per person, so like $6500.
Option 2: don't show up for 2&3, have the rest of the itinerary cancelled.
Option 3: change 2&3 for a different flight, which was $5000 per person reticketing plus the change fees.
.... Is this accurate? Is there any way around this? I bought trip insurance with Allianz- can they help?
Feb 11, 2018, 7:01 pm
#2
Join Date: Apr 2007
Location: Australia
Posts: 6,338
Trip insurance typically doesn't cover "change of mind".... Some allows cancel "for any reason" but I'm pretty sure you'd know if yours did...its not that common.
As to changing the itinerary... the AA experts will no doubt be along... but IN GENERAL changes do tend to lead to the whole ticket being recalculated at todays prices.
As to changing the itinerary... the AA experts will no doubt be along... but IN GENERAL changes do tend to lead to the whole ticket being recalculated at todays prices.
Feb 11, 2018, 7:51 pm
#3
Join Date: May 2003
Programs: OW Emerald
Posts: 1,452
Trip insurance typically doesn't cover "change of mind".... Some allows cancel "for any reason" but I'm pretty sure you'd know if yours did...its not that common.
As to changing the itinerary... the AA experts will no doubt be along... but IN GENERAL changes do tend to lead to the whole ticket being recalculated at todays prices.
As to changing the itinerary... the AA experts will no doubt be along... but IN GENERAL changes do tend to lead to the whole ticket being recalculated at todays prices.
Beyond simply forking over money, options include:
1. Say "no, what's booked is booked" to your future spouse.
2. Sit tight and hope for a schedule change. In that case you might at least avoid change fees (but not fare recalculation).
3. Review your entire itinerary before calling AA and have a definite plan. When you make a change, the whole ticket is recalculated as if purchasing anew. Thus you can check the cost of the new itinerary yourself by looking on AA.com, kayak, or whatever. The additional cost will typically (again, depends on fare rules, this is a simplification) be new fare minus paid fare plus change fee. For example, it would be worth checking MCO-DFW-NRT-HKG-DFW-MCO, and then a separate HKG-DPS-HKG ticket (or NRT-DPS-NRT ticket), or try MCO-SIN or MCO-KUL. How you could do this is a whole subject in itself.
4. Look at purchasing one of the OW fare products such as Circle Pacific. These tend to be fairly uncompetitive in many cases, but if you are starting to look at $5-6000 in economy they're worth putting in the mix.
5. Check the fare rules about changes after departure versus before departure.
Feb 11, 2018, 8:17 pm
#4
Join Date: Feb 2006
Programs: UA, Starwood, Priority Club, Hertz, Starbucks Gold Card
Posts: 3,952
Have you tried to start from scratch and repriced your revised itinerary from the beginning? You might be better off to just cancel the current tickets and apply them as credit towards the new tickets, minus the change fees.
Based on your description of the options given to you, IMO the agent gave you bad information. Call back and ask the next agent to rebook segment 1 (even though you’re not changing it), and I can almost guarantee that it will return a lower fare.
Based on your description of the options given to you, IMO the agent gave you bad information. Call back and ask the next agent to rebook segment 1 (even though you’re not changing it), and I can almost guarantee that it will return a lower fare.
Feb 11, 2018, 9:14 pm
#6
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Feb 2001
Location: RDU <|> MMX
Programs: AA EXP 2MM, SK EBS
Posts: 12,461
Yea, Bali is usually a pretty expensive destination to fly oneworld to, especially compared to other SE Asian cities like SIN or KUL, etc. As mentioned above, I would definitely look at repricing the whole itinerary without the DPS flights.
For example, I see lots of days in April where you can buy an open jaw such as MCO-DFW-NRT then CGK-HKG-DFW-MCO for around $1,100 on aa.com. Change your current ticket to that, which should come out close to a wash after change fees. Then just buy the separate cheaper Tokyo-Bali flight on your new desired date. On the way back, just grab another ticket from Bali to wherever your return departs from, it's easy to find LCC flights from DPS-CGK (or SIN or KUL etc) for $100 each.
For example, I see lots of days in April where you can buy an open jaw such as MCO-DFW-NRT then CGK-HKG-DFW-MCO for around $1,100 on aa.com. Change your current ticket to that, which should come out close to a wash after change fees. Then just buy the separate cheaper Tokyo-Bali flight on your new desired date. On the way back, just grab another ticket from Bali to wherever your return departs from, it's easy to find LCC flights from DPS-CGK (or SIN or KUL etc) for $100 each.
Feb 12, 2018, 8:05 am
#7
Join Date: Jul 2003
Location: Gatwick, UK
Programs: UA *G, BA Silver
Posts: 1,673
When changing tickets there are two models for determining the new price ...
1. reprice everything at today's fares
2. reprice everything at the same prices as on the day you bought the original tickets. This means paying just the change fee if the same fare bucket is still available on the new flights.
Model 1 almost always applies when you change the outbound flights and model 2 almost always applies once you have flown the first flight.
If you haven't yet flown the first flight and yet you are only changing the return flights then tickets vary as to which model they use and you would have to read your terms carefully. I recently had a BA ticket that had model 2 rules for this circumstance and changing my outbound 6 days before my trip was going to cost $2000 (because of advance purchase requirements not being met), whereas changing the return cost just $275 (change fee).
Airlines don't seem to like making the rules clear or even readily available, but in situations like yours they are the place to start. If you can't find them or make sense of them, then call AA and ask them what changes can be made with re-pricing at historical fares. And then you need to find new flights that still have the same buckets available as your current flights. If you have to wait until after you have flown your first flight, then it is all a big unknown and effectively a gamble.
1. reprice everything at today's fares
2. reprice everything at the same prices as on the day you bought the original tickets. This means paying just the change fee if the same fare bucket is still available on the new flights.
Model 1 almost always applies when you change the outbound flights and model 2 almost always applies once you have flown the first flight.
If you haven't yet flown the first flight and yet you are only changing the return flights then tickets vary as to which model they use and you would have to read your terms carefully. I recently had a BA ticket that had model 2 rules for this circumstance and changing my outbound 6 days before my trip was going to cost $2000 (because of advance purchase requirements not being met), whereas changing the return cost just $275 (change fee).
Airlines don't seem to like making the rules clear or even readily available, but in situations like yours they are the place to start. If you can't find them or make sense of them, then call AA and ask them what changes can be made with re-pricing at historical fares. And then you need to find new flights that still have the same buckets available as your current flights. If you have to wait until after you have flown your first flight, then it is all a big unknown and effectively a gamble.