Stupid system...
 

Hi FT,

I bought a return ticket NCE-HKG via DXB and picked the A380 return flight that stops in BKK... and now my travel had change and I want to embark the plane in BKK.
I tried to manage my booking online and couldn't finalize it (Please contact your local office error)...

This evening I call CS and they told me that I have to pay the modification fees (100€- ok), the flight cost difference and change flight as my original one is sold out !
If I "miss" my first leg, and do a No Show, I'll lose my entire return... and I can't keep my existing seat in that EK385 A380...

HKG-DXB to BKK-DXB is a totally different ticket even the actual plane stops in BKK !

Sounds perfectly normal and no different than any other airline

Just book a cheap one way flight on AK from BKK to HKG... It will definitely cost you less than €100++

And yes, this is pretty standard on a relatively cheap Y ticket.

This isn't cheap... I only book FLEX... and in this case, this is not Flexible !

The FLEX and SAVER distinction is (although perhaps misleadingly) only relevant for Skywards mileage earning/redemption. Most FLEX tickets are, as you say, not very flexible at all.

Like I said, it probably would be cheaper to book another ticket between HKG and BKK.

The post you responded to is suggesting you buy a flight on Air Asia from Bangkok to Hong Kong to rejoin your booked itinerary.

It would be from DMK rather than BKK, but will let you avoid the problems you describe.

HKG-DXB and BKK-DXB are, as the agent said, treated as if they were separate flights. Rebooking from HKG-DXB to BKK-DXB is just like going on a whole new flight. At any time, the availability on HKG-DXB and BKK-DXB (same plane) are quite different!

If you haven't flown yet, then that sounds about right.

Having said that the fare to HKG allows the routing to be HKG-BKK-DXB-VCE with stopovers allowed. Same thing is the fare to BKK allowing BKK-HKG-DXB-VCE routing.
With you having to go from BKK that means you could fly BKK-HKG then HKG-DXB with EK on the same ticket and be able to catch your non stop flight in HKG (I think they connect from memory). Provided there is availability in your original fare bucket for BKK-HKG, HKG-DXB-VCE you will only have to pay the 100 euro reissue fee.

Are you certain? I once booked a J-class DXB-HKG round-trip and wanted to have a stop-over in BKK on the way back and it nearly doubled my ticket price.

That weird about the stop in BKK... anyhow, it is not my agenda to fly HKG-BKK.

I called back CS today, and had a nice gentleman that did not modify automatically, but manually and was able to get me on EK385 from BKK instead of HKG for 113€ if I drop to SAVER, and 153€ in FLEX... so here we are !

The system can be weird, but some persons are more clever or less lazy than others. I'm glad I could do it.

Thanks to the new allocation as well as it seems we went from a packed ECO to some seats available.

With Emirates it all depends on the day/time in which you call. Often times at the beginning of the week, fairly full flights zero out and nothing shows available. Then suddenly by Wed/Thursday seats in all fare buckets appear. They either clean out duplicate bookings or just mess with people's minds...but it seems to happen every week.

That's most likely because the fare you were on did not allow for any stopovers.