Change Fee Question
 

On 6/27/2011, I purchased a multicity destination for my family's spring breaK trip on March 2012. ORD-BCN and MAD-ORD.

Due to recent work development, I will need to relocate to MCI before the end of 2011. Therefore, I need to change our flights to be MCI-BCN-MAD-MCI. Not only that, I also need to change the date because the kids' future school's spring break schedule will now be different too.

I understand that I have to pay the different fare price. Is there a way to get out of the $250 change fee/PAX ($1250 for family of 5)? Or am I SOL?

I am currently Gold with Continental?

I thought it was a $150 change fee + fare difference. You might be SOL. You can try to purchase the MCI to ORD RT tickets (add 24 hours just incase of IIROPS) separately (via US airways or hotwire) too and spend 2 extra days in chicago if everything works out.

My experience has been $250 on INTL.

You can probably buy mci-ord rt for less than 250, so if you can keep the same dates (once you know) you can get more miles!

He'd most likely get the same miles as noone flies from MCI to Europe (scheduled service, that is) so he would likely have to route to a hub on the new exchanged ticket anyway.

OP, you are SOL. Unless you bought a fully refundable/chnageable ticket (or 5 of them) the fee is part of the rules of the ticket. It is the barrier that keeps some people from buying discounted tickets and using them as non-discounted tickets. Sorry, but that is the way almost all airlines structure their pricing models.

I don't think you understood the previous poster's comment. He indicated to buy a separate ticket MCI-ORD-MCI outside of the original ticket, and not to touch the original. Which I think is the smartest thing to do in this instance, if you can let your kids not attend school in your new town (due to the spring break issues).

Otherwise, as noted, you are pretty much out of luck with respect to the fees. What you could do is 'hope' for a schedule change between now and and a few months. Any schedule change, even a minute, allows you to not accept, and cancel the tickets without a penalty.

That is what I meant, but fastair was right too, any change would probably be mci-ord to start any way.

I would wait a bit. Chances are there will be a schedule change, and that could give you leverage to cancel and refund the tickets.

I am not finding the information or rules that will allow me to cancel and get a refund when a change in flight occurs. Would a change in flight departure or arrival, even for just a minute, really allows me to cancel and ask for a refund? How about change in gates, flight #, etc?

The change fees with continental are one of the most irksome policies they have

The change fee waiver definitely does not apply to a change in gates or flight #!

As for schedule changes, you will have to keep checking your reservations to see if one occurs, as no notification is sent. Any schedule changes will be highlighted in red, & you will be asked to 'confirm' the changes. At this point, you would need to call into CO reservations & request the change or cancellation (w/no fee) due to the schedule change.