Changing a OW RTW ticket
 

If I have a OW RTW ticket which starts off like this: KUL / xSIN / NRT (originating KL, transit Singapore, next stop Tokyo) and I want to change it to KUL / oSIN / NRT (stop Singapore), does this require the ticket to be re-priced?

I was under the impression that the rules require me to fly the first coupon (KUL-SIN) as ticketed and then subsequent dates can be changed free of charge; however, I am being told that since the ticket shows SIngapore as a transit, I will have to fly all the way to Tokyo before any date changes can be made. Is this correct?

Who is telling you this?

I think the answer is that you can change the Singapore transit to a stopover (remember only 2 allowed in the continent of origin) however it will likely require a re-pricing since there will be probably be an increase in taxes and fees imposed by the Singapore authorities.

I see no reason to believe you'd have to wait until Japan to make any date changes. Ask the person saying so for a citation from the rules. If you don't have a copy of the rules yourself, now's a fine time to get them. http://www.oneworld.com/content/libr...rule_sheet.pdf

I was told this by a JL agent; while I am of course prepared to pay the SIN taxes, repricing the itinerary will cost me a lot since the ticket was purchased nearly a year ago and at a time when the fare was MUCH lower than today's fare!

Why can't you just fly to SIN and then arrange the reticketing there? There would be a $125 re-routing charge, and increase in SIN taxes, and that's all. No repricing once you have taken the first segment. Also no "no show fee" if the ticket is nearly a year old (if I recall correctly that fee was only introduced a few months ago). The terms that apply to your ticket are the ones in force at the time you bought it, not the ones in force now.

Well, the "no show" fee has been around since sometime before December of 2008 so I would assume that it would apply to the OP's ticket. See this thread.

Oops, my apologies - I thought it was more recent than that (but I haven't ticketed a xONEn since August 2008).

But even so, all you have to do is change your reservation - you could probably do that even when you arrive in SIN (I assume the definition of "no show" is not cancelling the reservation before the check-in for the flight closes).

Reservations and ticket coupons are separate things. The only thing you have to be careful of is that your subsequent reservations don't get cancelled.

This is yet another example where having a paper ticket would make life easier than an e-ticket (where reservations and ticketing are rather too closely linked for my liking).

That is exactly what I would like to do, but the JL agent was adamant that no changes can be made before NRT without triggering a re-price. Her argument was that KL/xSIN/NRT is to be treated as my first flight (due to the transit in SIN) and I wanted to check with the folks at FT if this is indeed correct.

I believe she is wrong. But I've never actually tested this in practice.

I once had a similar problem with a OW RTW. Had AAA-xBBB-CCC in the middle of a ticket.
Flew AAA-BBB. When i tried to check in at BBB for the CCC flight they noticed the X in the corresponding coupon (it was a paper ticket back then) and after a long wait and numerous phone calls they first wanted to reissue the ticket, but then did non know how and at the end i just had to pay the extra taxes. This was on LAN.
I assume now with electronic tickets it is much easier for the software to spot the X for the SIN-NRT coupon, but no personal experience here, also no experience when the coupon in question is the second coupon.

What airline are you flying from kul-sin? I thought JAL cancelled the kul-sin flight