Due to the nature of where I work and how I get to the airport (offshore and via company charter) I am more often than not delayed due to weather, freight, comp op req etc etc.

This often results me making many changes to my itinery, from an originaly booked Ł580 flex fare lgw/bkk to paying Ł1000+ for economy and then even been told that there are no seats available and having to book a Ł900 fare on Qatar only to find out a day later that seats have become available on EK so rebooking wth EK so now in the silly situation of having 2 fares running at the same time for almost identical flights on different airlines.


EK number in Dubai is either very helpful i.e. looking for alternatives MAN LHR GLA or there is nothing we can do.

I have never tried to use the gold seat guarantee as from what I have read here its not worth even trying.

Is there anything I can do or do I just keep paying the higher fares plus plus re-ticketing hoping that they can get me on an EK flight?

There are many and cheaper alternatives out of London but I like EK.

Are you only flying LGW - BKK? The R fare (GBP 1175) is freely changeable, but probably more than you want to pay.

In my experience EK is unpredictable with inventory because they often block it, so your best bet is reticketing at the very last minute. Sure, around peak periods you'll have a situation where flights really are full and you'll be asked to cough up some stupid fare, but for the most part you'll only pay for one change and get a reasonably good fare.

Not restricted to LGW although prefered as this is the company charter flight airport and we are accomodated in the LGW Hilton. This is where we also do our company check in when going to work.

I have when required done the national express run to and from LHR and although only Ł20 and a hour or so away seems to add four or so hours to travel time giving that I am trying to allow for traffic (unless you know how the M25 can SNAFU)

I am thinking that I will just need to wear this situation although the R is a positive I never knew about but will come in very handy I am sure.

Normally book savers online for my required dates then upsell them to flex on the phone as it seems to give me a little more but not much more leverage when trying to reticket through DXB

What about talking to the ticket office at LGW and explaining or are they just going to tell me to behave and f off politly?

If you call and book an R fare in the first place, you can keep making changes for free and it is unlikely that you'll be paying a fare difference as only Y and E are higher fares. It might even make sense to ticket out of BKK or DXB as freely changeable fares may be cheaper (for example ex-DXB all fares are).

im not sure what fare i booked, but it was quite cheap- albeit i booked it a month ago. its freely changable, and i can reroute as well for free.

i was supposed to depart MAN but they allowed me to change date and depart from LGW...

so i'll be flying from LGW tomorrow.

Thanks for the info and your time on this.
1/ will I be able to book a saver/flex then call and change it to an R or must I book an R in the first place?
2/ Will I need to do a onewayer to either DXB or BKK so that my fares are ex one of these?

1/ You can book the cheapest saver online but changing it to a higher fare subsequently will incur change fees.

2/ Not necessarily if you don't mind complicated travel plans. Example - have a 5 month stopover in DXB, and then ticket out of there. Or a 12 month stopover in BKK with tickets out of there.

Sign up for expertflyer (get a trial) and search the various combinations under fare information. The icon with horizontal lines beside each fare displays fare conditions including change fees and flex/ saver, which should help you plan out your travel plans.