I hope I've posted this in the right Continental forum. I'm having an issue changing a non refundable international ticket on Continental and would value any input from users on Flyertalk on what to do about this or if I'm out of luck.

I first called up Continental yesterday to enquire about how much it would cost to change my ticket to a date in early November. The agent had a good look at the ticket and stated that it would cost $250, would I like to go ahead? I informed him that I would have to think about it and would call back later.

I called back a few hours later and spoke to a woman. This time I asked about a different date - in February 2012. She again took a good look at the ticket, searched on the computer and came back with the figure of $250. Again, I decided to hold off and call back. I also made sure to ask her how far out I could push this ticket and she stated up to one year.

Today I finally decided to go ahead with this change. I called up (earlier in the day UK time, so I probably got a different set of agents) but this time was told that it was impossible to change my ticket anywhere past one month after departure. I asked to speak to a supervisor who reiterated this.

I'm obviously angry that I was either misinformed twice or have been deceived this morning. So far my experiences (albeit limited) with Continental have been great - they pro actively rebooked my outbound flight onto Delta when there was a delay which could have resulted in me missing a connection - and the agents I spoke to last night were nothing but courteous and helpful.

Which agent is correct? Should I just give up and put it down as a loss or have I got a chance to actually have this changed? Any advice?

Cant say which one is correct without seeing the fare rules.
In general many international tickets on CO require a 250$ change fee or so.

however, the actual validity of the ticket will vary by fare basis.

Unless you printed out the fare rules yourself, it is hard to say.

sometimes, if you post the fare class of your ticket, exact route, date, someone here may be able to look it up through other sources. So, please post that information.

If you cancel your reservation before your flight, you should have a credit for the fare amount that's good for up to a year. Of course, it's gonna cost you an additional $250 to use that credit. Why don't you call again and see if cancelling the resevation will result in a credit?

The class is K

I called up again just now and asked about this. She explained that I could do this and would be able to use this return portion in a future flight booking. The cost of booking a new flight would therefore be the fair minus this leg. This seemed agreeable and so I told her to proceed with this. As it was explained I just need to keep my confirmation number and reference it when I call to book again - which I will be doing in the future as I fly the route fairly regularly.

This (fourth) agent was much more helpful. Not only did she find the notes in the booking made by the two people yesterday which even the supervisor could not find this morning but she explained exactly what would need to be done to move the ticket to February - a $250 change fee and a ticket price difference of �230, making it more sensible just to book a new flight as and when I need it and hopefully use the credit in some way.

Ok, now I'm completely confused and getting ever so slightly annoyed with Continental.

So - I called to rebook the flight using the 'credit' they issued me. The agent said I'd have to pay the change fee of $250 and then also an additional amount in virtue of the fact that, allegedly, the ticket I originally bought had a max 30 day stay and I now wanted to stay longer. It was therefore equivalent to basically buying a new one way ticket.

However, I have managed to dig out the fair rules for the original booking via opodo and have found the following:

CHARGE USD 250.00 FOR REISSUE.
NOTE -
ITINERARIES MAY BE REBOOKED UP TO ONE YEAR FROM
ORIGINAL TICKET ISSUE DATE PROVIDED THE PASSENGER
PAGE 1/12
> CANCELS THE TICKETED FLIGHT RESERVATION PRIOR TO
TICKETED DEPARTURE TIME. IF THE TICKETED FLIGHT
RESERVATION IS NOT CANCELLED PRIOR TO TICKETED
DEPARTURE TIME REBOOKING IS NOT PERMITTED AND THE
TICKET HAS NO VALUE.
TICKETS MUST BE REISSUED AT THE TIME A CHANGE IS
MADE.

Does this not go against what I have been told numerous times by agents - that my ticket has no value past the 30 days and that I SHOULD be allowed to rebook it/move it out to another date past this threshold??? I really do not understand where this 30 day thing that they keep going on about is coming from.

Could it be that something has changed/gone wrong with my booking? The original out leg of my journey was rebooked onto Delta due to a delay. Was my ticket reissued/the fair rules changed when this was done? I know for a couple of days after the Delta flight was visible via the "View Existing Booking" screen and then vanished shortly after.