eightblack

Yes you can - I have done it a few times. Depending on how EK views things, you will have to pay the actual fare difference and then the one time change fee.

For example - my family and I are heading SIN-MEL this weekend. The difference between FLEX and SAVER was SGD$100 per ticket.

You can also specify that one leg be FLEX and one leg be SAVER if the fare difference is higher.

Typically the actual difference between a FLEX and SAVER fare is very little on the routes I fly, this is why its so frustrating that we cant book flex online (or specify the actual fare we want)

LovetoTravel83

I totally agree here, the price differance between the two are very low.

I'm looking to book SFO-RUH roundtrip and I'm getting saver fares. Where if I booked RUH-SFO roundtrip I get a flex fare with a differance of 200 USD which is easily worth the tier miles.

Vegetable

Hi everyone!

Just joined FT and thought I'd chip in to say by default all online bookings for the LHR-DXB-HKG route seem to be Saver fares now too. If you persist and explore all the date/options you may find a Flex fare, but at a substantial premium (GBP 613.62 vs GBP 1058.62 for Economy, early May 2011 prices)

ung1

I think I posted this elsewhere, but here is what EK have done. They have taken the two lowest published fares on every route, changed the maximum stay to 4 months (earlier everything was 12 months) and made these Saver fares.

When they introduced Saver fares, this was not how the were classified. Anyway, it seems last year's devaluation was the small one. This is the big one! I'm glad I bought a lifetime supply of US Air miles!

Zol

This situation is becoming very annoying now. Fares ex-DXB are getting more and more expensive and the miles granted are dropping to saver from flex. I have been checking fares to Europe all morning and they are all saver if less than 1 month.

Add to that, whenever you manage to find a flex ticket, you check the fare conditions and see the endorsement as Saver. You don't want to have to fight for it everytime with screen shots and emails.

abhilife2001

+1 to the above..
We are speaking about earnings here, but even the redemptions become quite unattractive with these saver fares as no of flights to get a redemption ticket get very high..
I usually fly the Eur - India sector and in LH it takes me about 5 Europe return flights from India to get a return ticket from India to Europe in Y.. For EK it will take anything from 6 - 10 flights depending on fares..LH lately have given quite good promos on redemptions wherein we could get Europe - India return for 30k miles, but EK doesnt seem to have many redemption offers usually..
Only place where Ek redemptions are better than LH is in the fuel surcharge front but c'mon EK can do better than this.

B747-437B

I've got a rather unique situation here. I booked a flight 2 days ago BOM-DXB-ACC fare basis BEE1YIN1. Since the ticket is to Accra, I have to show up in person at a ticket office with my credit card before the ticket will be issued.

The rules emailed to me 2 days ago with the booking (verified in the GDS at the time) show BEE1YIN1 to be a FLEX fare. When I ticketed it this morning at the office in Accra, the same BEE1YIN1 is now a SAVER fare (again verified in the GDS).

The PNR still shows that I am entitled to FLEX miles but the e-ticket receipt states SKYWARDS SAVER.

Skywards defines Flex Fares as "* Skywards Flex fares are those with no eligibility restrictions that are available for purchase all year round" and Saver Fares as "**Skywards Saver fares are all other discounted fares that have eligibility restrictions, or have a limited sales period". BEE1YN1 has no restrictions, is available for sale thoughout the year and has a 1-year validity period. Other than an obscure endorsement line that is not even visible at booking (the website still shows it as a FLEX fare), there is nothing to suggest it is a SAVER fare.

Zol

Just faced the same situation this morning to KUL and trying to deal with it now on th phone. The worst part about it is I called the EK office to book this ticket rather than do it online and paid the 7% surcharge only to avoid this. The agent gave me the wrong fare conditions and I figured it is worth paying extra for better fare conditions.....

B747-437B

Good thing I kept a screen shot when I booked (on top of my confirmation email).



and then what it shows as today...

Hyperacusis

I wasn't aware that airlines could simply change the fare rules on you after you were already ticketed. That seems very, very shady to me.

Zol

What they did was they reclassified the fares and their miles earnings, so if a B fare used to costs $1000 and earn Flex, it now still costs $1000 but reclassified as a Saver fare.

ft101

Update: It's all changed again and Flex fares are now available where there were only savers a few days ago!

Zol

Did you check the fare conditions? There appears to be a glitch between fare conditions endorsements and what is displayed next to the fare.

ft101

I hadn't and you're absolutely right - the conditions show them as saver as per B747-437B's screenshot above.

However, the change since a few days ago is in the right direction so fingers crossed.

Hyperacusis

In B747-437B's case, the fare rules were explicitly changed. This, to me, would represent either a violation of the COC or another form of breach of contract.