IB issued the LONE4 ticket!

Met a family on the weekend who booked and paid for a DONE4 in Jan 2009 for travel at end of Feb 2009.

When the anniversary offer was announced they approached CX and and asked them to rebook them so they could claim the lower fare - they even changed the dates without changing the routing. CX refused and told them the only way forward was to cancel the original booking with the 5% penalty (and wait for refund) and then make a new booking at the cheaper fare.

I thought IATA rules were that any change to the 1st coupon meant that the fare had to be that at the date of the change, which in this case would have been the 10% discounted fare.

That's correct. They should have been able to reissue the old ticket with date change, paying 5% fee, but less 10% discount, for a net savings of 5%.

From practical point of view, it is easier to refund the original ticket with 5% fee, then purchase a new one with 10% discount. Ticket reissueance can be very complicated and time consuming for long routings. It may also cause complications down the road if further changes become necessary.

But if the xONEX rules provide for changes to be made at anytime before the 1st flight (including sector 1), they should have just reissued the ticket together with the refund of 10% in accordance with the new fare.

Why did they have to cancel the original booking with the 5% penalty.

After all, if a 1st coupon is rebooked after a fare increase, the airline would simply demand an increase in fare and reissue.

In this case honesty (by the customer) wasn't the best policy. They should have simply changed either the first flight or part of the route and let nature have its course.

He/she was trying to change the first flight and get a 10% refund.@:-)

IATA rules apply to all international tickets issued by IATA member airlines. It supersedes fare rules.

Seems perfectly reasonable to me - after all the airlines are quick to take your cash if the fare has increased from when then booked to the date they amended the 1st coupon.

Surely has to work both ways.

Bold mine... Maybe they did eventually 'just rebooked' but if this is how they started out...

A route/first flight change should have been a $125 reissue fee + reissue against the going rate at the time.

I guess CX weren't too pleased with the explanation given. :)

I guess people have different definitions of what is reasonable. :p ;)

Which TOC is this from?

Why is reissuing so complicated and time consuming? What are the complications it can cause later?

I am still a bit confused wrt to reroute & reissue fee and/or recalculation of fare ... here is my understanding, would appreciate you guys to confirm/correct:

a. if I change date or reroute first sector - this leads to reissue fee of $125and recalculation of fare

b. if I have started my trip and need to reroute a couple of segments in the middle of the trip, this will result with a fee of $125 only

c. if I have not started my trip, but want to reroute a couple of segments in the middle of the trip - would this be the same as (a) or (b)?

A) Change of Routing on the first segment is not allowed.

B) The rest of the segments can be changed with the $125 free Plus Taxes for the new segments. Only the new segments will be recalulated. The entire ticket should NOT be repriced.

what about changing and rerouting segments e.g. 3, 4 before I start using segment 1? Does this just cost $125 only or this also leads to recalculate the fare?