flight changes to an F ticket - really expensive!!
 

hi I purchased an F ticket out of Italy (Venice -> Sydney -> Venice) for ~5200 euro. (skywards flex fare) ... (I know the equivalent Sydney - Venice - Sydney is something like $12,000 AUD in F!)

I've done the Venice to Sydney in January and am doing the Sydney to Venice in May.

I called up Emirates and also tried doing it online, to move my flight (EK413 on A380) to a day earlier in May....and the option was to pay something like 15,000 euro and that was to Business (no available first class)!

Has anyone else found changing dates on a paid F class ticket quite difficult and quite a lot different to original fare paid? (I would have thought a full fare F ticket (admittedly it's almost half price when purchased originating in Europe VS purchased originating in Australia) would offer some degree of flexibility in terms of changing flights)

Generally they are relatively flexible... the highest reissue fee I have ever seen, on a very discounted ex-Europe F ticket was 250 EUR. An F ticket bought today VCE-SYD-VCE would cost ~5k EUR if A inventory was available, and has no reissue fee.

It sounds like there is no A inventory (the lower of the two F buckets) available and you are being charged for some kind of re-fare... if you tell us the dates you wish to fly on we can look at the availability and perhaps provide you with options.

That fare is a 1st class fare, but it is not a full fare 1st class ticket

I would suggest phoning again. Looking at the current fares from Venice to Sydney , there are 2 fares in 1st class at EUR5030 and 6210 exc taxes, the lower being A class and the higher being F. There are also more expensive fares of business at EUR10800 in J and 17,800 in F r/t

The cheaper A class fare does allow changes for no charge

Even if A class was not available , I would expect only to pay around EUR590 ( around $775 ) to upgrade the fare if they can just upgrade the inbound to F or around EUR1180 if the whole journey needs to be repriced

It sounds like they are charging you the difference to the most expensive fares

If you are in the Sydney CBD, I would pop into the EK office at 1 York Street ( level 10 iirrc ) and sit with them and they can print out fare rules and check what is going wrong in reissuing. I have found the Sydney office v helpful

Otherwise try phoning and say that you want to make a change and ask them to check the change penalties and check availability in the class you booked.

If it is available, in class you booked then they should be able to do it for no charge. If A class is unavailable, that would explain a fare difference, but get them to check why they cannout just upgrade to the cleap F fare

There is a rule in the cheaper fares that says

so am not sure if perhaps that means that when upgrading from A to F, that you cannot upgrade to the cheap F fare. I haven't seen that provision normally on my ex-EU fares, but would explain the huge difference in fare that they are quoting

I tried to change a J class fare, was in Bangalore after outbound, EK wanted £1,100 to move the flight back by 24 hours on the way back to MAN, farcical.

That is quite feasible depending on the fare class originally booked. From MAN-BLR, EK offers O,I,C and J fares and there is a big difference between the lowest and highest. e.g. the O class fare has a GBP200 change fee and around a GBP900 fare difference would be about right if C is the lowest available

It might well be feasible but it certainly isn't reasonable. After 3 out of 4 flights with dodgy IFE combined with this issue, I am seriously considering moving my business to Qatar or Etihad.

If all that is being charged is the appropriate fare difference, I cannot see how it is unreasonable. If the original booking class is unavailable on the new flight , then whether it is 1st, business or economy would need ( assuming fare allows it ) to upgrade to a fare in available booking class

If you prefer EY or QR , then switching to them makes sense, but the same would apply on those airlines too

Raptor23 just shake your head and walk away.

Dave, take whatever airline hat you have on at present off for a moment and look at this from a consumers point of view,we are the people who pay everyone in the industry's wages. I paid £2050 for a return J class ticket from MAN to BLR. Upon arrival something happens that makes it desirable for me to push back my return flight by 24 hours, do you think it is reasonable for EK to ask for an additional £1100? I have no problem paying the published amendment fee (which was £150 FTR) but £1100? Jokers.

If the same booking class as you had originally booked was available, then you would have just had to pay the change fee and nothing else. If the new flight is busier and there is no availability in the same booking class, then I would expect to have to pay the fare difference

It ios no different to someone booking a cheap economy class ticket and then wanting to change to a flight where Y was the only economy base available. Would need to pay change fee plus the fare difference

In the situations you reference, it suggests that you booked a discounted business class ticket and then there was no availability in that booking class and so was charged. This is the same on pretty much any airline and nothing special to Emirates

EY and QR will have exactly the same policy.

If this is happening a lot, you may be better off buying a flexible ticket up front which has no change fees plus will have less chance of having to pay a fare difference. Buying the cheap restricted tickets is great if know that not going to want to make changes or that the chance of having to pay a fare difference is low, but not in all cases

I buy A class tickets and know that if I want to be able to change for free that I need to change to a flight where A class is available. If A is not available then I know that I will need to pay the fare difference to F if I want to travel on that flight. Depending on route the difference between A and F can be quite a bit.

That sounds perfectly reasonable!

Imagine if you wanted to fly MAN-BLR on Mar 1 and BLR-MAN on Apr 1 but BLR-MAN on 1 Apr was busy and the fare was 3000 GBP vs returning on 2 Apr which was 1500 GBP. If the fare had a 150GBP change fee and they didn't charge a fare difference, then anyone could just book 2 Apr return and then change it to 1 Apr.

If you change to a busier flight with more expensive seats it is only fair to pay the difference whatever it may be and this is true on any airline.

If you want a fully flexible fare with no fees for changes, it's perfectly possible to book this. However, it would cost a heck of a lot more than £2050.

Thanks.
I'm traveling 24th May (A380), and was hoping to change it to 23rd May (A380)
The cheapest option is the 777 on 23rd May, though that departs at 0600. The next option is 20,000 Euro, which is business class

Given those options, I think I'll just leave it at the 24th May, and stay in the F suite!

See the screen capture

http://i69.photobucket.com/albums/i8...pse7daadb6.png

Interesting

So EF shows EK5001 (QF operated) as sold out in F. This is probably why you're getting quoted outrageous fares (most likely a combination of 2 one way fares, or the full YY fare?!).

For the record EK413 is currently showing wide open P4 A4 J7 C7 I7 O1 Y9 E9 R9 W9 M9 B9 U9 K9 H0 Q9 L9 T9 V4 X9, so is the connecting EK135 F4 A4 J7 C7 I7 O7 Y9 E9 R9 W9 M9 B9 U9 K9 H0 Q9 L9 T9 V9 X9.

You should be able to shift EK413 on May 23 or even 22 (instead of catching the annoyingly timed 415), no sweat.

It seems a bit unfair and misleading to state that EK is trying to charge you 15,000 Euro without mentioning that this is for the whole family: two adults and one infant. All of the I statements in the OP make me assume that this is for travel only by the OP until I see the screen shot in post #13.

Option 1 is almost the same price as the original ticket and totally in FC. Option 2 is half in FC while Option 3 has business class only on the short connecting SYD-MEL flight. The most expensive Option 3 is still significantly less than 15,000 Euro per adult.