DONE5 - Change to LA800 Flight
 

Next winter, Mrs. BdaDiver and & I will be travelling from SWP to S.Am. as part of our DONE5. The original plan was to spend one month in Aus, then one month in NZ, and then return to Sydney to catch LA 800 SYD to SCL. (I already have two D seats ticketed on the flight from SYD to SCL.) I am making some changes to the ticket, and was wondering if it will create any issues if I were to amend the LA 800 flight? I would like to drop the SYD-AKL portion of the flight, and depart from AKL. This would be done in connection with a re-issue, so I am hoping that the coupon can be changed to an AKL origin.

Many thanks in advance for any advice/suggestions from those with much more experience on these tickets.

The reserved seats will have to be released, at which point yield management may not make them available for you -- or may make them available SYD-SCL but not AKL-SCL. This is quite common on that route, so do not assume that you can change it to originate in AKL using the same seats you already have. Also there is no way for the agent to know this ahead of time, except by some high-level supervisor intervention. Probably it is much easier to just fly to SYD from wherever you are in NZ and travel as originally booked on LA, unless you have some friends in high places at LAN.