pbohannon

Hi there,

I'm sure this has got to be a repeat question, but my search skills are apparently poor so I apologize if this is oft-covered.

I'm wanting to book SEA-BLR via LHR and the reverse for the return. Currently, I can book E class on both SEA-LHR and LHR-BLR; I'd been watching via and a single E fare opened up today on LHR-BLR otherwise it's very full. There are no J fares at all and no E on the return BLR-LHR. Could someone help me understand whether the two options below are reasonable and if so which might be more advantageous cost-wise?

1) I book the whole trip right now, mixed class in that SEA-LHR-BLR are in E, and BLR-LHR-SEA are in some coach fare. If E or J opens up on BLR-LHR-SEA (any leg), can I call in and get the better price? Put differently, can I reclaim the difference between what I paid and what a new booking would pay? Do I have to hope my currently held booking classes are still available?

2) I book the whole trip right now but for one day later than my preferred, where both I and E are available so relatively cheap, but do the same strategy above. If the fare on the date I want comes in, just call in and switch the date on the booking?

Again, apologies if this is already answered and definitely open to some help as to better search. Thanks very much!

Globaliser

If you book in E class for SEA-LHR-BLR and in economy for BLR-LHR-SEA, I'm not sure why you're confident that this will result in a more expensive fare than booking E class for the entire SEA-LHR-BLR-LHR-SEA itinerary. E class is the middle of the three WT+ booking classes, so the E class fare is liable to be more expensive than most economy fares.

In any event, if you book in economy for BLR-LHR-SEA and you later change to E class and that does result in a lower fare, then the refundability of the difference depends on the rules of the economy fare that you have paid. If you have paid a non-refundable economy fare for that direction, then you will get nothing back but you will still have to pay the change fee and any difference in taxes, fees and charges caused by the upgrade to E class and the need to reissue the ticket (typically because of exchange rate movements). If the economy fare you have paid for BLR-LHR-SEA is refundable, then you should get a refund of the difference.The ability to change dates also depends on the rules of the fare that you have paid for the existing ticket. The chances are that the answer is yes, for the payment of the change fee plus any fare difference and any difference in TFC.

In respect of both possible changes, there are additional rules about advance purchase restrictions, re-faring etc as well, but without knowing anything about your travel dates it's impossible to do much more than to warn about them. The rules work in different ways depending on whether you are changing the outbound half of the ticket at all, or only the inbound half. They serve to identify which fares will be used to calculate the fare difference (whether it's the fares in force at the time of original ticket purchase or the fares in force at the time of the change) and how you measure advance purchase requirements.

pbohannon

Ugh, yeah, I was definitely less than clear in my original post. Sorry about that. . I didn't/don't believe an E or T class would be cheaper than standard economy. A better way to have asked my question would have been to propose booking in W class on the return (BLR-SEA-LHR) and if/when E opened up, moving from W->E. This is what I did for SEA-LHR-BLR but "on my own" as I just watched for E to open up. When it did, the outbound component went from ~4000 (W) to ~1300 (E) and I booked it. A few weeks ago, I noticed the same fare difference on the return component but just failed to book it in time. I'm now confirmed in E outbound and V return, so the real question now is what would happen if E opens and I want to go from V (~800) to E (perhaps ~1300) on the return.

Again, apologies. The dates are 9-March (SEA-LHR BA48) and 10-March (LHR-BLR 119) and 16-March (BLR-LHR BA118 and LHR-SEA BA49).

Thanks again for your help.