livenowsleeplater

I'm debating between 2 airlines, Singapore and Asiana, to book a round trip SFO-ICN flight.

However, there's a possibility I may need to change my return flight date, so I want to book with the airline with change-flight fees that are minimal to no cost at all.

Singapore says that it's only $20 to rebook + fare differences (but I'm also hearing that there are also hidden costs, such as the extra $50 for talking to a rep on the phone).

I'm also looking at Asiana, and its terms & conditions says that it charges $100 for reissue/revalidation, but it also says "REISSUE FOR DATE CHANGE INCLUDING OAL PORTION WITHOUT CHANGE IN ROUTING/CARRIERS IS PERMITTED FREE OF CHARGE" - so does this actually mean Asiana allows you to change the date for free??

Currently, the fares for Singapore are $930 and $895 for Asiana.

sol95

Not sure if it holds true across all booking classes, but I've regularly changed my Asiana itinerary without charge. In fact, I just did that this morning as I decided to stay in Seoul a week longer than my current itinerary.

livenowsleeplater

What class do you usually fly with? I'm flying Economy without having accrued any miles with them before (this will be my first time flying with them...) so I'm unsure if you fly first/business that you have the perk of changing dates for free.

sol95

I fly a mix of business/economy, and have had no problems changing dates with either class. The current changes I made is on an economy fare.

THD

It depends naturally on the fare basis. Do you have the fare basis and intended dates of travel?

Looking at the price of the flights I would guess it is a regular season K- or S- fare basis. The change fee is 100USD and is only waived for upgrading to higher fare basis for the purposes of mileage upgrade.

I just did a random booking on the Asiana website with dates in Sept and found prices approx in the same range, and did not see anywhere the text regarding resissue for free.

jon503

I've actually changed S fare tickets for free before. It obviously depends on the fare basis, which you can check while booking (at least on Asiana's webiste), but for any ticket earning miles I've ever had, there was a varying change fee for the outgoing leg and one free change for the return, if you change it after you started your trip.

A_Lee

I'm no expert, but it sounds to me like there's no charge to change the ticket, provided the ticket doesn't need to be reissued/revalidated. If you want to change your ticket to another day that doesn't have the exact same booking class available, I imagine that will incur the charge, or if you want to extend the ticket beyond the validity of the ticket, likewise the charge.

S class usually does have the change restriction, but I've had good luck in getting mine changed all the time without charge, even extending beyond the original validity without charge. Same for K class. A couple times the phone agent has mentioned something about a charge, and then caught herself and said there was no charge. I'm guessing because I'm Diamond Plus and they waive the change fees for me, even though I don't think it's a published benefit. Or maybe they just like me.

Anyways, OZ never charges any call center fees for bookings/changes that I've ever heard of. So if there is any change fee, it would only be what's stipulated in the rules and no extras.

livenowsleeplater

Hi THD, thanks for taking the time and checking Asiana flights. And I'm looking to book S-type Economy fare, from Aug 21 2013 to Jan 24 2014.

On the Asiana and Orbitz website, you can see "change fees" of the particular fare by clicking the provided link, and I C/P what it says (since it's quite long, I'm just going to bold the important parts):

FOR S- TYPE FARES OUTBOUND - CHANGES CHARGE USD 100.00 FOR REISSUE/REVALIDATION. WAIVED FOR DEATH OF PASSENGER OR FAMILY MEMBER. NOTE - VALID DEATH CERTIFICATE REQUIRED. --- IF REISSUE OF TICKET TO A HIGHER FARE BASIS IS FOR THE PURPOSE OF USING MILEAGE UPGRADE TO A HIGHER CABIN WITHOUT ANY CHANGE IN ROUTING THEN CHARGE WILL BE WAIVED. --- CHARGE APPLIES TRANSPACIFIC SECTOR FOR CHANGES TO ROUTINGS/CARRIERS/UPGRADE TO HIGHER FARE PROVIDED SUCH CHANGES ARE MADE PRIOR TO DEPARTURE OF THE TICKETED FLIGHTS. ANY CHANGE TO THE OUTBOUND TRANSPACIFIC FLIGHT -INCLUDING DATE CHANGE- WILL REQUIRE TICKET REISSUE. --- THE ITINERARY MUST BE RECALCULATED USING THE FARES IN EFFECT ON THE DATE OF TICKET REISSUE AND MUST MEET ALL RULE PROVISIONS OF THE REVISED FARES. --- IF THE REVISED FARES RESULT IN AN INCREASE THE THE DIFFERENCE WILL BE COLLECTED IN ADDITION TO THE USD 100.00 CHARGE. --- THE 100.00 CHARGE WILL REMAIN NON-REFUNDABLE AND MUST BE CARRIED FORWARD TO THE ENDORSEMENT BOX OF THE REISSUED TICKET. --- CHILDRENS DISCOUNTS APPLY. --- CHARGE DOES NOT APPLY TO INFANTS NOT OCCUPYING A SEAT.

INBOUND - CHANGES CHARGE USD 100.00 FOR REISSUE. WAIVED FOR DEATH OF PASSENGER OR FAMILY MEMBER. NOTE - --- VALID DEATH CERTIFICATE REQUIRED. --- IF REISSUE OF TICKET TO A HIGHER FARE BASIS IS FOR THE PURPOSE OF USING MILEAGE UPGRADE TO A HIGHER CABIN WITHOUT ANY CHANGE IN ROUTING THEN CHARGE WILL BE WAIVED. --- CHARGE APPLIES PER TICKET REISSUE FOR CHANGES TO ROUTINGS/CARRIERS OR UPGRADE TO HIGHER FARE. --- REISSUE FOR DATE CHANGE INCLUDING OAL PORTION WITHOUT CHANGE IN ROUTING/CARRIERS IS PERMITTED FREE OF CHARGE. --- THE ENTIRE FARE MAY BE UPGRADED TO HIGHER OZ FARES RECALCULATED FROM THE POINT OF ORIGIN PROVIDED ALL RULES PROVISIONS FOR THE REVISED FARES ARE MET. THE REVISED FARES WILL BE THOSE IN EFFECT ON THE DATE OF ORIGINAL TICKET ISSUANCE. THE USD 100.00 CHARGE WILL BE COLLECTED IN ADDITION TO ANY DIFFERENCE IN FARES. --- THE 100.00 CHARGE WILL REMAIN NON-REFUNDABLE AND MUST BE CARRIED FORWARD TO THE ENDORSEMENT BOX OF THE REISSUED TICKET. --- CHILDRENS/INFANT DISCOUNTS APPLY. --- CHARGE DOES NOT APPLY TO INFANTS NOT OCCUPYING A SEAT. CANCELLATIONS ANY TIME CHARGE USD 200.00 FOR CANCEL/REFUND. CHILD/INFANT DISCOUNTS APPLY. WAIVED FOR DEATH OF PASSENGER OR FAMILY MEMBER. NOTE - VALID DEATH CERTIFICATE IS REQUIRED. --- NOTE - WHEN 2 ROUNDTRIP FARES WITH DIFFERENT PENALTY CHARGES ARE COMBINED ON A HALF ROUNDTRIP BASIS THEN HIGHER PENALTY CHARGE APPLIES --- PARTIAL REFUND NOT ALLOWED.

So there's a difference between the outbound and inbound flights - for the outbound it says there will be a $100 fee if you change dates, but for the inbound flight it says it's free of charge if I choose to change dates. Can anyone confirm that I am interpreting this correctly?

livenowsleeplater

Hi jon503 - your answer is basically what I was looking for haha. So basically, if you stuck with the same class (e.g. economy before and after the change), then the change was free? But just to clarify, you still had to pay a price difference if the new return flight is more expensive?

Thanks again!

jon503

In theory, yes; I would have had to pay a price difference for a different fare basis. In practice I've never actually had to pay any price difference. No idea if I've been lucky, but I've done this repeatedly and always was able to change my return date free of charge. Just be advised that you can only do this once. I rebooked and asked to be put on a waitlist for another date during the same call once and was informed that the waitlist would have been a second change.

A_Lee

I've changed the return on a single S class ticket multiple times without any fee, sometimes as much as 4 or 5 times. But as mentioned earlier I'm guessing it was waived due to my status.

Just be aware that you can only change the ticket if the new date you want has S class availability. If there's no S class availability, even though there's other economy class availability, you'll end up paying more. This is not unique to OZ of course....all airlines will charge you in this case, or in some cases even make you buy a new ticket. S class is a very low bucket and is one of the first to go when a flight starts filling up, or is expected to be full. So it could very well be an issue if you're traveling during peak times, or try to change your ticket at the last moment.

daveFLN

S fare class rules from the united site (searched today) say:

CHANGES ANY TIME CHARGE USD 200.00. WAIVED FOR SCHEDULE CHANGE

I guess that means no schedule change fee?

3. CHANGE IS ON/BEFORE DAY OF ORIGINAL SCHEDULED FLIGHT

THD

you realise the thread is 4 years old?

if you are looking on the united site that would almost certainly mean it is not an OZ fare basis and UA S may not map to OZ S.

jon503

To confirm what THD said and provide some more recent data points: I have no idea about UA S (sometimes the classes do not map 1:1, so don't assume that automatically means OZ S), but I continue to regularly change the return leg on S fare tickets and above and have yet to be charged - the last time I did so was 3 months ago.

Kaeshii Nicoles

Im in business class at the moment, how to rebook the ticket? And also I want to rebook my China Eastern. Please help me