Problem changing booking on-line
 

I hope that someone can give me advice on what is happening when I try to change my booking on-line.

I have a Premium Economy flex ticket HKG - CDG - HKG and I have already changed the return date once, on-line and with no trouble. I made this change exactly one week ago, on-line, and it is updated and confirmed, both on teh website and also in the revised E ticket that I got by E mail.

I need to change my return date yet again, but when I went into manage my booking, this is the message that greeted me "...The online ticket change function is temporarily unavailable as your previous online booking transaction is still being processed. Please try again later or contact our reservations office for assistance...".

I can't understand why they are claiming that my previous change is still being processed, since it has been confirmed and updated for a week now. Is this just a system bug which will disappear, in your experience ?

Based on my past experience, I can't change online once the air ticket is issued. Usually it's once they charge my credit card and an e-ticket will be issue like within a minute. Only way to change is to call MPC and depending on your airfare, there may be charges for re-issue, yes changing date/flight is consider a re-issue. Mine had been either US$50 or US$100

I have never had trouble changing online before, this is the first time. The ticket can be modified with no fee and usually it takes a couple of minutes to change in Manage My Booking

CX IT is not very advanced and website frequently doesn't work as advertised. Suggest you give the airline a call. Wait times are usually very short and they will solve your issue immediately.

Note that once you change a booking on the phone you probably can't change it again online (though it seems you can't right now anyway).

Couldn't agree more....the web site and app are a disgrace.

I have never tried to change booking twice online, maybe you have to make the second change by phone only....

It could be CX IT, and they are not very good.

It could also be processing. There might be financial implications for your previous change that have not been processed, even if the flight has been changed in your PNR.
I don't know what fare you used and its conditions. It is probably a corporate fare, but if it were a public flex PE there is a change fee of 100 plus a possible fare adjustment. These fares rarely allow for a negative fare adjustment (but if they do it will be paperwork). Until the accounting system has fully processed your rebooking (including paperwork for the credit card or arrangement with your TA/corporate account), the system will consider your transaction in process. You hold a confirmed booking on the new flight but the processing has not been completed. That happened to me on a couple of airlines even one with no change fee.
If your fare allow changes without any financial implications, then CX internal systems might still require processing if the surcharge/tax has changed and eventhough you are not paid back anything.

No, it isn't a corporate fare, I booked myself on-line.

A bit of background...I booked the same PE flex ticket last year and made one change to the return from CDG - HKG, on-line, no change fee. This time, I have the same flex ticket, I have already made a change on-line to the return.

On neither occasion was there any change fee (and, as it happens, no fare adjustment, the fares seem pretty stable for this tarif). When I make the date change on-line, it clearly states that there is zero to pay and the change goes through immediately. The fare conditions on-line also indicate that there is no change fee.

Which is why I can't figure out why changing a second time is blocked, unless hidden somewhere on the website there is a limit to how often you can change on-line.

I guess I will have to call MPC, but since the return is in May I haven't got round to doing it yet, I may wait and see if the on-line situation unblocks itself.

Interesting, the Flex PE fare (R) on the website indicates a EUR100 rebooking fee.
Fuel surcharges have dropped to zero recently. So they might have to adjust that when you rebook, but you receive nothing as the fare adjustment only works upwards.
But, I do not know what happens in your specific case. BA used to have a one-online-change policy, maybe it is the same for CX.

In case anyone is interested, I just tried again on-line and now there is no problem to change my return date for a second time, at zero charge. So either there was just a bug in the system or, as Brunos mentioned, they needed to adjust a decreased surcharge, even if there was no impact on the fare cost for my ticket. Knowing how bad CX's IT is, I suspect that it was a system bug !!!