Upgrade one segment to fully refundable
 

Somewhat to my surprise, I am going to make diamond this year. I had a last-minute trip over the Christmas holidays that is going to put me to diamond. However. I would really like to change the outbound part of this flight. Unfortunately, if I do that, I come up 15 miles short of diamond because the light gets cheaper

i can cancel and rebook the entire trip as fully refundable and get the miles but that’s another $500. I really want to split the difference and do one segment, fully refundable and one segment as a discount. Can they do this is if I call?

Most fares are covered under the "most restrictive" category. If you mix a refundable and non-refundable fare the entire ticket is non-refundable. You would have to cancel your current ticket for a credit and then book two separate one-ways using non-refundable for one and refundable for the other.

-RM

Thanks


yeah, after I posted this actually tried that and it does work. I’ll just have to do it this evening if it’s still available when I get home from the family Christmas festivities. I don’t think I want to try to keep up with all these ecredits on my phone. Especially since I firmly believe you have to screenshot every step of this to make sure they actually get it right when they post it 😂

If you used part of a non-refundable fare as a credit, you can't simply convert that credit into a fully refundable one by using it to purchase a refundable fare. The non-refundable portion from the credit will still remain non-refundable. Airlines are smarter than that.

It sounds like you want a ticket with a specific cost, not a ticket with certain refundability conditions.

You can call and specifically request a fare which is higher than the lowest pricing fare for MQD purposes, but you won't get a refund due to the other factors discussed. It might take several calls to get an agent who comprehends your request and is trained to do anything other than operate their version of the web interface.

I am not trying to make anything fully refundable. I just need for the airfare to cost about $100 more than it does and the only way to do that is for one way to be at least fully refundable. Otherwise I’m going to wind up about 50 MQD short of diamond which seems stupid.

yes, and it’s Christmas which means that if you have any seniority you probably aren’t working today. I think the best thing for me to do if I decide to do this this evening is to cancel my current ticket and buy two one-way tickets one.nonrefundable one refundable I’ve done the math that will cost me about $60 more than I’m paying now and will get me the MQD

What I was hoping to do was just be able to do a change online but that’s just not coming up with the option to give me the pricing I need

If you haven't already booked the highest available cabin, what about upfaring (eg Y to Y+, or Y+ to F)? (If you're already in F/J obviously this doesn't help.) Or what about rerouting your outbound to add a stopover (if possible)? Or maybe wait and hope the price goes up?

well I’m in first so there’s nothing I can do there. As for waiting for the price to go up the trip is the 27th. We’re getting a little close for another price increase. I think the only price increase I’m going to get is the fully refundable


And theoretically, it might be possible to add a segment, but I just don’t want to do that. The benefit of living in Atlanta is the nonstop flights.

A stopover would add more MQMs not MQDs.

Just a note

Thanks for all the help. After weighing my options I decided just to stay with the original flights.

On domestic fares, a stopover would create a fare break and add an additional fare component which will increase the total price in the majority of cases (in some cases, a connecting itin can be less when priced on separate fares instead of a single one, but it's fairly rare). On international itins, the cheaper fares either don't allow stopovers, or there is stopover surcharge in the fare if they are allowed.