Help needed on securing seat
 

Hi all,

I'm scheduled to fly EWR-PEK on Jun 4 but would like to change this date to Jun 19.

I've been booked in I class but it seems there are no seats available for Jun 19. I've tried calling the CO number over the past week but I've had no luck.

The reason why I want the change is because Jun 4 wasn't my original desired date. When I bought my return ticket last fall, the system wouldn't accommodate Jun 19; Jun 4 was the closest available date.

Any insiders know what I can do to i) get my date changed, and ii) avoid being subject to the change fee (which I don't deserve)?

Thanks for reading.

Best.

Is this A Joke
 

You must be kidding......right

I am curious to know why you don't think you deserve to pay the change fee.

availability between the 19th and the 4th

14th V
13th Q
11th V
8th Q
7th I

for the V + Q fares you have to pay the fare difference as well as the UNAVOIDABLE change fee.

Um, hmmm...could have waited until the window opened so as to get the proper dates. If the lower buckets sold in the meantime and you then had to pay a higher fare at the correct date, such is life.

Nothing, and you DO deserve the change fee...see above comment. Why someone would book a return ticket on the wrong date is a little :confused:...I'm thinking I have to go to CUN for a wedding next May, so here's what I'll do: I'll book the outbound exactly 330 days out so as to get to the wedding on time on the day the inventory opens, and I'll ignore that my ride home isn't available yet. As the Guinness commercials would say, "Brilliant!" :td::(

No.

The best and most efficient solution for your problem is to invent and build a time machine, then go back and correct the error. Has anyone a better suggestion? ;)

If CO offers to sell me a ticket that's valid for 1-year, then surely it's their responsibility to ensure that all dates within the 1-year window are available at the time the ticket is issued (within reasonable means, of course). A couple of things seriously undermine the lure of this offer:

First, their system opens up dates for only 330 days from the day the ticket is issued. This means I simply won't be able to take full advantage of the 1-year window. This defeats the purpose of saying the ticket is valid for a year.

Second, I understand that sometimes, seats just aren't available. But I'm not convinced that back in Aug 07 when my ticket was issued, securing an I class seat for Jun 08 was out of the question. I'll grant that it's possible I class was full then, but it's very hard to believe.

Now, all of this wouldn't stink if CO didn't insist on slapping a fee for changing dates. If CO couldn't book me on my desired return date either because it was beyond the 330-day mark or no seats were available (again, hard to believe), then they're obliged to waive the fee under these circumstances. I think that's fair.

Come on, not everyone has the luxury of time to play around with like you do.

I didn't book a wrong date. I wanted X date. It wasn't available, which I found hard to believe. So I was given Y date, this being the closest available date. I had to take it, otherwise I couldn't fly, and I had to fly. And there was no cheaper alternative.

Your strategy would work for some, but certainly not for others. You have to take into account that travel agents sometimes have their hands tied up and cannot do stuff without first consulting the airline, or that the airline was being a ..... and not releasing dates. I'm convinced the latter was the case for me.

Dude/babe, if I could invent a time machine, I'd go back to the dawn of time and ensure that the creator gave all of us supersonic wings so that we wouldn't have to spend 13 hours in a metal dildo to get from New York to Beijing.

The argument doesn't follow.


I don't see the point. If a ticket is valid for a year, I can use it anytime in the next 365 days (366 for a leap year!). The schedule doesn't have to be posted for the ticket to be valid.


If you tried to purchase a particular class of service and couldn't that class of service isn't available. The reason doesn't matter--it's not there to buy.


It sounds to me like you just messed up. CO didn't; you did. You're going to pay a change fee; call it tuition for a lesson learned and don't do it again!

With language like this, I say it's time to delete that post/lock the thread/ban the user...

This has been the one redeeming point made in the thread to date. I got a chuckle out of it. The OP is still blantantly incorrect and hilariously sticking to their guns re: change fees, but that line made me laugh a little.

I dunno. I guess they had to be away more than 330 days so they couldn't book their return flight and if you're not versed in this it can feel, I dunno, wronged?

It would have been better to ask beforehand because I think the answer would have been to buy the RT ticket and then paying the change fee at a later date instead of buying two one way tickets, which is what you would have had to do to get those tickets when flying more that 330 days apart.

If you return flight was not bookable at that time, then you just don't book that ticket, period. Wait until the whole trip is bookable, then you purchase. This is a revenue ticket, so it's not like one's trying to get a scare standard reward ticket at the earliest possible time.

I really have no idea where one will get this idea that because a flight is not bookable now, I just book some other dates and then somehow it's the airline's responsibility to change it for me. Totally mind-boggling.

But what if you're going to be gone longer than they will let you book? It's possible, which is what I was thinking of. If I'm going to be gone June 1 to May 30, it's not possible to book that return if you wait until May 31 to buy the outbound (at the last minute price), which is what it sounds like the OP's situation was.

I swear I read a similar question (which is when you should ask, before buying) and IIRC the suggestions were to buy two one-ways, or two RT and throw away the unused legs, or buy a RT and pay the change fee at the later date.

shrugs

Yes, those are all options. And often, the cheapest way is to buy a RT and then pay a change fee.

My thoughts, for what they're worth (hint -- not much, but short sell 'em anyway).

1) Was the OP on a trip of longer than 330 days? If not, there was no reason not to wait until the return trip opened up (except maybe for the price issue, but we can see where that is leading him/her)

2) Why is the OP waiting until now to take care of this? According to my calculations, approximately 270 days have elapsed since the travel date in question has been available to schedule. Even without the "luxury of time" it is inconceivable to me that the OP has been without access to internet or telephone and a few spare hours over that span. People reproduce in less time.

3) I don't think the language was too far out of line. The offensive word was something you can hear on basic cable -- and probably even network TV after 9 -- and was used in relation air travel in general, not in relation to any individuals on the board. While the word is sexual in nature, it was not used in any sexual context, thus further limiting the obscenity. Not the kind of thing you'd want to say in polite conversation with strangers, but by that standard there are worse things said on here even without such words. I can understand if the moderators disagree (the AUP is pretty open to judgment here) but I certainly don't see this as anything more than maybe a warning offense.

4) Dude/Babe, pay the fee, get the flight you want (or as close to it as is now possible) and chalk it up to lesson learned: when you buy a ticket for a date you don't want and the T&C of the ticket tell you there's a fee for changes, you're going to have to pay a fee in order to change it.

Yes, this has been my one of my sticking points all along. If I leave on Jan 1 and plan to return Dec 31, the system simply won't be able to book me on the inbound. Now, CO may say: well, since Dec 31 isn't available, then you shouldn't have booked it. But where's the logic in that? CO is selling this as a 1-year ticket via a travel agent. If you're not able to book the inbound without incurring a penalty (a fault that's obviously not yours), then this ticket isn't technically valid for 365 days; it's, in theory, valid for 330 days - and that's not taking into account the inexplicable full house of some fare buckets on inbound dates at least 8 months ahead.

It's the principle of the matter that's at stake here. This is flagrant entrapment on CO's part. And it's also a sneaky tactic of plundering a hundred bucks off customers who are none the wiser. I know this isn't a fair world, but look: if you sell a ticket that's valid for a year, you should fully expect the customer to take advantage of the window, or at least come close to it. Otherwise, they'd be better off purchasing 2-week, 1-month, 6-month tickets. The least any airline can do is under these circumstances is to ensure that seats are available in the fare bucket in question. And if the customer defaults on the date, then yes, CO can say with conviction: we're going to ding you with a penalty and there's nothing you can do about it.

rkkwan, you said I should have waited until the entire trip was bookable. Taking into account the average person's busy schedule and given the unpredictable nature of airline booking systems, can you honestly say that that would have been the most pragmatic decision to undertake? I say no way.

I don't see how you can book a flight that isn't available--no logic in that.

You're mixing up the validity of the ticket with the dates available to book travel. The two issues are not related.


The only thing that was entrapped here is a person who didn't read the rules!

I'd love to be able to make up my own personal contract of carriage and have Continental endorse it! ;)