drvannostren

Quick backstory,

Booked a ticket to Cuba, the country has long interested me, Aeromexico was offering very cheap fares out of YVR (like...$480CAD return cheap) business class was only like $650 so I figured why not? My travelling companion has had to cancel and I'm a little soured on the whole thing, having weird scratch off internet cards, the country maybe not being as cheap as I'd thought, two currencies...all the little things that normally wouldn't probably bother me much are just making me a bit more sour. That's all on me.

I have no ways out of this ticket, no sked changes, no travel insurance-able reasons (unless I get into something in the next 2 days, but I'd never hope for that), so I called to ask about refund, no dice even with a fee, change fee is gonna be $200USD, it sucks, but it is what it is. EXCEPT, now I'm being told that you can't switch lass of service, I've been told by 2 different agents, is this just an Aeromexico policy, or is this normal? I don't normally buy business class, so this has never really come up for me before. The reason I would wanna downgrade is so that when I go to change my ticket I don't owe like $1000CAD as fare difference. But it seems like no dice there...

So aside from the smaller question of is this policy normal and is there any way around it....maybe my bigger question, and the long shot is, does anyone know of anywhere that Aeromexico consistently has pretty good prices on for business class? I'm based at YVR, but I could conceivably originate in almost any major city. I'm a frequent traveller to Medellin, but Bogota would work well too...what I'm finding is that often YVR-MDE in the lowest business (it's not Premier, it's the one with a crown, I forget the name, but it's the lower business class) going south the price is pretty ok $560-640 one way, but the return is ALWAYS like $800-1000. I tried some different destinations, same results, tried originating in Colombia, the results are the same. Does anyone have any locations where the price might be like $500-600 each way?

I should probably just suck it up and go to Cuba, I just kinda don't feel like going by myself anymore and I booked this trip with my lady in mind as more for her than me. I could always just not go, but that would mean just eating the $650 which I don't really wanna do, again, I'd be happy to change my booking to an economy class flight to Medellin and pay the change fee, but the prospect of paying the $200USD AND $1000 fare different really doesn't appeal to me for a ticket that's only gonna normally cost like $700.

HalconBCN

Why not just suck it up and go to Cuba? Yes, internet is a hassle but the country is changing slowly and you will bring home memories, good and bad, that last a lifetime.
From Cuba you could fly to Cancun cheaply if you want to get off the island.

RFNJ

Not to be stupid, but have you been to Mexico City? Great food, some really nice architecture, etc. I have to imagine that there is some cheap b class fares. I know they were offering some very cheap on the nyc-mex route the other day - like $600 if I remember correctly.

Good luck.

drvannostren

I've been to MEX many times, I actually quite like it. If I had to use this ticket for that purpose just to get some value out of it, I would. But even the J class prices from YVR-MEX are often out of whack. I've found that lots of times it's that situation of like (at least for some searching that I've done) flying YVR-MEX-SAL is cheaper than YVR-MEX.

Here's the other thing I'm toying with and I've asked around to some AM contract employees here and no one seems to know the answer, but the FT board is full of people who know more than the employees so I'll give it a shot.

They told me on the phone I can't dowgrade the ticket to Y, you can only go UP in fare class, which sucks, but ok. Well Premier is the fully refundable J class. So if I call in and change my flight to lets just say YVR-MEX-EZE Premier, I'll pay the $200USD for the change fee, pay the $19CAD for the call centre fee, and I'll pay like $5000 in fare difference...would the NEW fare rules apply? I know if you purchase an upgrade, the old fare rules apply, but this would be changing a ticket entirely. Then like 2 weeks later I call back and get the whole thing refunded, having lost $220 give or take, instead of wasting the ticket or forcing myself into an expensive "Comfort" J fare. Would that work, or would they insist on using the original fare rules?

Obviously I don't wanna phone them and ask that question directly, because it sounds shady. Even if I frame it as "well what happens if my plans change", I'm not sure they wouldn't just see right through me.

swaigiux

When changing the ticket the originally non-refundable amount remains non-refundable.

nancypants

Just go to Cuba