etiene

I don't think that's the right interpretation - albeit it's a reasonable one that I've made before. I believe it is interdicting adding in additional international segments if the remaining itinerary is purely domestic.

That said, I've not seen such historical pricing before departure provisions before and wouldn't have thought they make much sense. There are legitimate reasons to open lower bucket space close to departure but not want to allow people like OP to just cash back out on something they already bought having locked in a much earlier advance purchase date. It may also be that the real problem is hiding elsewhere in the rules. Many agents aren't all that good at parsing and interpreting them but merely rely on what the computer says when given the new itinerary, making them unable to provide the reasoning behind a reprice regardless of whether it is correct.

flyerCO

#2 is long (many years old restriction) Basically once you fly all international flights, any remaining (if any) value can only be used for other domestic flights. Never understood why. However it's been there for awhile.

flyerCO

Just to verify, same fare class is available for the flights? Rebooking means needing fare class availability today. Don't forget that the fare will need dual inventory. Ie Z and say L. Just having Z isn't likely enough.

findark

Your (OP) interpretation of the rules text is correct. Reissue using the fares in effect on the issue date, measuring AP from original issue date to departure, but otherwise following all other fare rules and revalidating inventory. If this is a round-trip, do downline segments also pass inventory validation?

I suspect one of the issues is that change-in-place is always a challenge because often this isn't assumed to be an available workflow. An agent may be trying to run it as a cancel-and-replace rather than a change. Also, are you getting pre-change real Amex Travel agents or Expedia? It's always a big stretch to expect reasonable results from a non-premium TA.

nort

My ticket has only international segments. I haven't flown any segment yet. Two segments on the outbound, and two on the return. The connection airport is in Europe.

I don't have any domestic connections, so this clause doesn't really apply to my booking.

By the way, it does not say "Once travel has commenced" above that section. Screenshot in post #5. So, the section should apply even before flying the first segment.

nort

This is a round trip. Outbound is booked in I and I want to change it to Z. Return is already booked in Z, no changes are needed. Return flight has no Z inventory now, but that's moot since I'm not trying to change my return, yes? The fares allow combining on a half round-trip basis.

I'm not sure which Amex travel agents I'm getting. 4 out of 5 that I spoke to do not seem to understand fare rules and they talk to me in a patronizing way without even reading the fare rules. Only one of them looked at them and agreed that what I'm asking complies with the fare rules.

nort

Yes. The outbound segments have Z2 Z9 (two segments) availability now.

Can you explain what's dual inventory, please. I'm not familiar with this concept.

paul21

Discount business class tickets are sometimes sold as economy tickets with an economy fare class and then "upgrades" into business with a business fare class. Under rule application, the first section, it will say something like "both economy and business class booking inventories must be available", and typically the fare basis will not start with J/Z/I etc.

jwhuffman

Ok, so as you provided more info....you want to change the outbound flight to Z........This would require the whole ticket you be refared at todays fare not historical and would have to meet the advance purchase, and other fare rules to qualify.

xliioper

Note that if you are looking up inventory separately on the individual segments, there might not be married inventory availability when married together. You have to use origin and destination in a single search for EF to show married segment inventory availability.

findark

I honestly forget - I want to say you either need to revalidate inventory all the way up to the changed component or all the way from it to the end of travel (I forget which). Regardless, this shouldn't impact your ability to price the outbound in Z, but if you get an intelligent agent and only a quoted price, you might want to check what is happening to the return. An experienced FTer might remember the rule.

I'm still betting change-in-place is the sticking point though.

That might actually be the good ones - with Expedia you're lucky to get someone who can convince you they're sentient.

Most domestic First fares require inventory in both the prime and a (specific) Economy class in order to price. This should be a red herring for an international Delta One fare.

As xliioper notes, however, you do need to validate inventory between fare break points, not segment-by-segments (not clear if you are doing this already; DL will return different inventory per-segment even if married).

nort

I searched as a single flight. Married segments are available - Z2 Z9. I'm familiar with married segments,

nort

I'm pretty sure I read the entire fare rules for this fare basis and I could not find such a clause. In case I missed it, what section of the fare rules would say this?

jwhuffman

Can you please provide the departure city and arrival cities and I or Xlioper will be happy to go over the complete fare rules. I would love to post the exact text besides what has been posted, but you have not provided complete information.