silent129

I purchased a business saver ticket (D class) from TPE-NRT-BOS and back from the Taiwan website. In my receipt, it says

Stopovers
To U.S.: Permitted.
To Canada: 2 free, 4 at TWD2900 each.

Booking Change (*)
Before Departure To U.S.: Permitted
To Canada: Permitted at TWD3000
After Departure To U.S.: Permitted
To Canada: Permitted at TWD3000

Refund
Before Departure To U.S.: Permitted(No charge)
To Canada: Permitted at TWD6000
After Departure To U.S.: Permitted(No charge)(Refundable amount will be the difference between the fare paid and fare used.)
To Canada: Permitted at TWD6000

Several questions:

1) The refund rule states that there is no charge for refunds since this ticket destination is in the U.S. However, what does "Permitted" mean under Booking Change? Is it charged at TWD3000 or is it free?

2) Same question as in #1 except for "Permitted" under Stopover.

3) In addition, I noticed JAL charges a 2000 yen ticketing service fee for exchange/reissue. Does this get triggered by doing a refund, adding a stopover, or making a booking change? If there are multiple passengers on a single reservation, does this mean its only one 2000 yen fee or multiple ones for each passenger?

4) What is the difference between Booking Change and Rerouting?

JALPak

I believe permitted means no charge

http://www.jal.co.jp/en/inter/tsf/overseas.html

So ticketing fee is per passenger who occupies a seat.

Rerouting means you change your routing, e.g. from TPE-NRT-BOS to TPE-NRT-ORD-BOS. Booking change without rerouting means just changing to a later or earlier flight on the same route.

silent129

Thanks. So I guess a ticketing fee is valid for adding a stopover, but the lady on the phone wanted to charge me a booking change fee also. I'll try calling again to see if I can get the latter waived. One thing I've found strange about how JAL operates, is that I need to call the Taiwan office where I booked the ticket; the US guys claim that they can't make the changes because its a different office.

JALPak

Even if they refuse to waive your booking change fee, you can always refund the ticket, get all the money back and book another one to avoid all fees assuming the tickets are still unused. Just make sure seats are still available before doing so.

Also, you will have to pay for the fare and tax/fee differences too. Some fees could be added to the fare construction while you are doing a stopover for example.

silent129

What happens if the new fare + taxes is actually cheaper with the new stopover (does this ever happen?)?

armagebedar

It can if you purchased a ticket under a certain fare and then JL publishes a discounted fare with more liberal conditions. Unusual but not unheard of.

JALPak

Or the YQ drops. But in this case they will only refund you the difference if the first international sector is changed.

Another possibilities are weekday vs weekend, seasonality surcharge if your ticket now falls into the low season instead of peak season, etc

silent129

Thanks. For what its worth, the first time I called, the lady wanted to charge me 2000 JPY per passenger for changing the date of the first leg and adding a stopover so I hung up. I called again and got a guy who made the change for free! So I guess it pays to be persistent

JALPak

um....isn't that 2000 JPY the ticketing fee?

Anyway, just make sure you can still use JAL website to print out your e-ticket receipt and enjoy your flights

silent129

Yea he said he didn't need to charge anything. Not sure why but I didn't argue