jfadool

I had a HEL-AMS-US round trip flight booked where I have flown the outbound but need to move the return. I cancelled the return but left the ticket open.

I'm having a hard time figuring out how much the price difference will be.

When I called to cancel, the agent seemed to indicate that if I was able to find another Z fare, the price would be lower than other fares. I've found a few days with a Z fare on the one-way, but that doesn't seem to correlate with anything when I call. Pretty much any day that I choose ends up being a ~$1000 fare increase regardless of the fare or price I see on the website.

The trip was admittedly a great price, and I'm not sure if re-booking is possible at that same rate. Any advice on knowing what the re-price will cost without calling?

ijgordon

So typically, when changing the return leg, the fare rules will allow it to be repriced using the fares in effect when the ticket was originally re-booked. Which effectively means no re-pricing as long as you re-book in the same inventory and continue to meet the minimum-stay/day-of-week/etc. restrictions on the fare.
However, I can't say for certain whether this is a condition of the fare you originally purchased, or if it's actually a common condition for fares purchased originating in Europe/HEL. I did look up a HEL-JFK "Z" fare on DL, and it does look like it has that language. But hard to say if that's in your specific fare rules; if you have the fare basis code from the e-ticket receipt, routing, and dates of purchase & travel, someone can look up the rules on ExpertFlyer. And if it has that language, and you do find a flight with Z inventory available, remind the agent that the fare rules allow it to be repriced at the originally ticketed fare.

ETA - also, not 100% sure if the fact you canceled the return reservation and left the ticket open has any bearing on this. I don't see why it should, but you never know.

MSPeconomist

If OP is trying to rebook far into the future, maximum stay requirements or seasonality restrictions in the fare rules could be a problem.

I'm also not sure how it works if your first cancel and then rebook later, versus changing the return flight all at once, before departure of the first return segment.

jfadool

The Original fare was HEL AF X/E/PAR DL WAS M556.30ZS20CMND /-GSP DL X/ATL DL X/E/AMS DL HEL M497.87ZS10CMND NUC1054.17END ROE0.821485 XF ATL4.5

Booked July 29, 2021 HEL-CDG-IAD on Nov 28. Then Return GSP-ATL-AMS-HEL on Feb 17. That changed a few times since the original ticket due to schedule changes and cancellations.

That's one thing I didn't consider. I'm trying to push it 3 months back. So could for sure be a maximum stay or seasonality requirement.

Thanks for the advice to both of you.

xliioper

Fare basis code is ZS20CMND outbound and ZS10CMND inbound. Valid for Fri-Sun travel outbound and Mon-Thu inbound with a Sat night min stay requirement. No seasonality limitations, but they had a max stay requirement of 3 months which sounds like what you are running into.

jfadool

Awesome! Thank you so much.

Sounds like I'm just going to have to deal with the re-price due to the max say requirement.

findark

Yes, if you violate the maximum stay it will reprice both directions to ZS01UBNB (assuming Z space on your return), which is +$228 for the outbound and +$506 for the inbound (modulo conversion to EUR and back using NUC and market float). There could be a bit more in YR adjustment, but I don't have an easy way to price that for historical fares.

jfadool

This is crazy good information.So if I'm understanding correctly, it's going to reprice both the out and inbound?

If I could find a Z fare, the re-price would be ~$700, or $700+fare difference?

Seems like I might be better off just taking the remaining value as an e-credit then booking whatever I want or even an award ticket.

findark

Yes, because the outbound also has a three-month maximum stay.

Oops, I made a mistake. The fare I quoted has a 180-day advance purchase, which is not satisfied by the 122 days between original ticketing and the outbound.

If you can find Z inventory (which is not the same thing as having a pricing Z fare today, although the latter is sufficient):

It should reprice to ZSOYUBNB for a difference of €268 outbound and €516 inbound, or a total of €784. This is the difference in fare, and there is no charge besides this. My math could be further off by a difference in YR, which is nearly impossible to get out just a GDS, but usually YR is the same for all fares in the same cabin.

Hopefully this matches what you have already seen.

Generally no, unless DL actually lets you do this. What you are describing is actually changing the ticket to a one-way HEL-WAS which would reprice to DS00BENB outbound, which is an additional collection of €2,020 versus your existing coupons. There is no residual value if you do this, assuming the original cancellation was voluntary.

jfadool

This does match what I've seen already.

Fortunately the original cancellation was not voluntary, it was convenient for me that that it was cancelled though. KLM cancelled their evening AMS-HEL flight for that day, ended up routing via CDG on AF with an overnight layover. What I'm unsure about is I did call to cancel after that, the ticket was left open and not converted to an e-credit. I'm not sure at this point if I'm committed to that decision.

Either way, this information is exactly what I needed. Thank you so much.

flyerCO

Are you also keeping origin/destination the same? If you were booked to GSP-HEL you must rebook GSP-HEL (connection don't matter, just O/D). You cant switch to IAD-HEL, etc...

jfadool

Yes, I would prefer to fly the return as GSP-HEL. I'd be willing to change the origin/destination for significant savings, but doesn't sounds like that is the case anyway.

findark

Ah, perfect, in that case you should hopefully be able to request a refund of the GSP-HEL sectors without a reprice and indeed a one-way using miles is probably cheaper.