gerlinky

Hello,

After a month of pain, I managed to secure (through several calls):

08/12
AM LHR - ZRH (LX) - business
AM ZRH - PEK (LX) - business
09/12
PM PEK - AKL (NZ) - business
10/12
AM AKL - CHC (NZ) - economy

I have just checked my booking to discover they've changed my PEK - AKL flight to 24 hours later AND I'm now departing from PVG.

I was not advised of this change - just found it on spec - and there's no consideration for the fact (a) it's not the date I wanted/need (b) the new airport is 1000km away...

Ringing the ICC (and after 2 hangups) there is nothing available short of me changing to other (less desirable airlines) and adding an additional flight.

Am I as stuffed as it feels? Or do I have options available?

The above cost £800. Changing it to 5 flights - using LH or CA - and losing another day in travel - really loses the appeal.

We are still to book our return flights too, to add to the mire. Is this just tough luck or a related to the imminent change to BA?

Welcome any advice or suggestions if anyone is up for it. Essentially, I'm (still) just wanting to go:

LHR - CHC - arriving 10/12

Thanks, yours v despondently,
G.

Percy Pig

Apologies if you've tried this already, but have you asked the ICC if there is anything on SQ in C from LHR-SIN, as this doesn't show up on ANA?

If there is, there are 2 seats available on SQ in C from SIN-CHC on 9th Dec only (1945 - landing 10th Dec 1035)

dannyrado

They also are unlikely to volunteer the SQ info, so keep calling and checking.

My recent booking i was told by two agents that nothing was available, and the third booked it just a few minutes later.

Gerlinky, I thought you'd booked on OZ by the way, via ICN or am i thinking of someone else?

gerlinky

Hi Danny,

Yes, I did, but managed to change it to (what I thought were) better flights with LX and NZ. Until they changed!

The guy on the phone said the SQ flights weren't available even though they were showing (he said he was the supervisor).

N

dannyrado

There was nowt wrong with OZ, but that doesn't help, and does rather rub it in, sorry. But have you tried getting them to check SQ on all the routes?

FRA, AMS, BCN, MXP, FCO, CDG, MUC, CPH, from what i remember.

Edit: Oh, and PVG is usually wide open with Turkish via IST, so imagine you could get there pretty easy??

p.s. There's a route home very similar to that you had booked (NZ and LX) on the dates you wanted to come home by the way. Nice timings too. I don't want them anymore, as we chickened out of long long haul with infant.

marquees

I think it's nothing to do with the BA "takeover". NZ is pulling its twice-weekly PEK-AKL flights from June 30 - announced 28 March, more info on the Air NZ Airpoints Forum.

They are replacing them with an extra flight PVG-AKL, making five a week from July 4th.

More info here (see under March 28 - "ANZ China operation to focus on Shanghai").

Percy Pig

Assuming 2 pax:

Lhr - IST (TK C) 8 dec - lots of availability
IST - Sin (TK C) 9 dec - 0005 departure
Sin - CHC (sq C) 9 dec - as at my post above

dannyrado

The time of this will likely change, they've done it to me on an upcoming trip, and all of the SE Asia departures show very similar departure times at the moment. Build time into you redemption to suit, from what i've heard the lounge in IST is worth spending time in anyway.

Just letting you know, because of your experiences.

This however is a very nice redemption. (Should be cheaper too.)

RAPC

The lounge there is excellent. One of the few lounges worth getting to the airport early for.

TK redemptions do tend to be a bit cheaper as their YQ is (generally) lower compared to other carriers.

gerlinky

After another 48 hours of staring at flight schedules we managed to change our bookings on 2 April to something very similar:

LHR - ZRH - PVG (all LX) - AKL - CHC (NZ)

Today I see that they have changed our flights again, this time, to:

LHR - FRA - PVG (all LH) - AKL - CHC as before.

Why would they do that? I can see that the flight still exists and is showing availability in business. Can they keep doing this until we fly?! Do we have any chance of recourse?

I hear Lufthansa is not such a good choice. Is it worth me starting again but risk losing an NZ business flight?

Any insight appreciated, as always...

demue

No idea why they would change your reserved routing / carrier other then some "secret" instructions from LH or maybe the LX seats came back unconfirmed. Fishy either way.

However, at this point in time I wouldn't worry about angled flat (LH) or fully flat seat (LX) and rather get this puppy ticketed. I have a ticket reissue sitting in the ticketing queue for 2.5 days (with SQ segments) and even escalations don't seem to move it right now. Your redemption options on *A may go away very soon, so grab what you can while it lasts.

h15t0r1an

Sounds like someone made a mistake. But you'll never get them to admit to it. But I do agree with you that those segments you had booked on LX were going to be a much better experience than the LH segs you have now. I wouldn;t be happy with this, but the timing for getting it sorted out is very bad. If they changed it without your permission when it was confirmed on the correct segments before, perhaps you will be able to try to get them to correct it on that basis. But that might involve admitting someone made a mistake, so perhaps they won't.

Sherwood Hampton

Good luck with that. I've just had an SQ redemption cancelled due to it not being issued in time despite the fact that I told them it MUST be dealt with quickly.

I'll be making a call first thing in the morning.

I'll be glad to see the back of the ICC, complete and utter morons that they are.

raikje

Harsh - they are getting completely saturated by the redemption stampede. I personally find the ICC much better to deal with than it was a few years ago. Not without its problems still, I grant you, but ticketing within the SQ deadline has been pretty reliable recently. I hope you get your seats back in the morning.

demue

+1. Overall they are much better handling bookings these days, but are getting overwhelmed rght now. BTW, I got my SQ reissue done last night with the help of a sharp agent.