Rerouting - is this an easy one to do?
 

All,

Thanks again for all the advice I have received thus far on this (and other) forum(s). I currently have the following AONE4 ticketed:

CAI-LHR-HKG-SYD-MEL-SYD-AKL-SYD-BKK//NRT-HKG-NRT-HKG-SIN//HKG-JFK-DCA-JFK-YVR-LHR-AGP-LHR-DXB

I have thus far only used the CAI-LHR segment. With hindsight, I probably do not need the SYD-MEL-SYD part of this ticket. I am considering reissuing this (either remove it altogether - most likely - or replace the HKG-SYD with HKG-MEL), but have two questions:

1) Assuming I used BA London to do this, is it a painful procedure? I have read some horror stories on here about reissuing!
2) If I do remove the SYD-MEL-SYD segments and add in one or two (paid for) extra segments for Asia, would this increase the complexity of any reissue, and hence the hassle/time in doing so?

Any comments appreciated. Thanks again for your time and help.

1) It depends very much on the individual agent you get. I have had good experience at the ticket desk in T4, but bad at the transit desk there. Remember also that reissuing with BA will cost you GBP25 more than reissuing with CX. I assume that you are taking CX F LHR-HKG (if not then why not? it is much better than BA) so why not get CX to do the reticketing? I have no experience of them doing it at LHR, but everywhere else I have used them they have been fine.
2) No reissue is ever totally painless - the problem always being taxes and surcharges. To be honest I doubt that the extra paid segments would be any worse than changing to two different SWP segments, provided that the agent doing it is familiar with the rules on extra paid segments. In any case allow at least 90 minutes EXTRA to do the reissue if you plan to do it before your next flight (so if I was taking CX ex-LHR I would be at the ticket desk 3 hours before my flight).

Hope that helps.

Thanks for your reply. What about simply removing the SYD-MEL-SYD coupons and just not bothering with those two segments? I have had these flights reserved before (was originally going to leave in December) but they are now open-dated. Would that be a painless procedure or could I be rumbled and the AOPENx cops called in (presumably requiring a reissue)?

If they are open-dated and the ticket is on paper then you're fine - just throw them away; I've done this more than once. If it's an e-ticket then there's a risk that you may be called on it, but if so then you'll just have to plead that you thought it was OK and offer to do the reissue. But I can't see logically why they might be likely to complain, so I'd take the risk.

Thanks for your help. I am going through HKG early tomorrow morning and might arrive slightly earlier to see if CX can reissue it relatively painlessly. I gather from previous posts that their ATO is very efficient.