Globaliser

At the risk of sounding like a grammatical pedant, the phrase "at the time of making the change you must pay the fare difference" does not mean the same as "you must pay the fare difference at the time of making the change".

The latter makes the time of change the time point for identification of the fare difference; but the former makes the time of change the time point for payment.

And the former therefore allows for the fare difference to be identifiable by reference to an earlier time point.

Dave Noble

At the time of making the change, you must pay any fare difference is perfectly correct

The fare difference, after departure on a r/t ticket , is calculated based on historical fares. This is an industry standard

This is a reason why for one of my recent tickets, where there was a large price increase on fare, I waited until after sector 1 was flown before making change. If change had been made before departure of 1st segment, I would have incurred approx $2000 fare difference plus $0 change fee - after departure , the change cost $0

Platy

Maybe...but the QF T&Cs at the time of purchase doesn't actually say that that the fare difference is calculated based on the price that you would have paid at the time of original booking.

The information available to the consumer is suggestive of the price being determined as that prevailing at the time the change is made.

Splitting grammatical hairs does not magically produce any statement or inference that the cost difference will be determined by the operant pice from the previous date.

So...my original question stands...where is there any statement from QF at the time of purchase that the price operant at time of original ticket purchase is the yardstick and not the price at the time of making change (for a booking where the customer is seeking to change an inbound sector on an economy flexible ticket and they have already made the outbound flight).

The information may well be there and I just have never seen it before.

Thanks, Dave, respectfully, simply stating it's an industry standard (which may well indeed be true) doesn't inform the consumer of the T&Cs at the time off purchase or at the time of change - it is up to the airline to articulate such to the consumer in order to trade fairly and openly - I may have missed it in writing, but I can't see it when I attempt a dummy booking.

Whenever I have changed a flight online I have paid a fare difference as presented on the day of the change. I have no idea what the price would have been on the day of original ticket purchase, but I can see the fare of the day by interrogating the booking system independently of my booking. I do not perceive that the website is changing the fares presented to me by back referencing previous fare tables rather than those in the system at the time / date of change.

I can remember such instances on QF, VA, HA bookings that I have changed over the last 12 months or so.

Dave Noble

Respectfully, you can believe it or not

If you do not believe it, perhaps call an airline or 2 and ask

There is no grammatical hair being split - the wording is what it is and is accurate

Some airlines actually stipulate it explicity in the fare rules - e.g. for BA LHR-SYD r/t

Platy

Dave, respectfully, I've made no statement about beliefs.

Nor am I trying to split hairs - rather look at the information presented to the consumer by QF and the inevitable conclusion the consumer would reach based on that dataset.

I merely asked what your source was in my original response..

As far as I can tell (I may have missed a link lurking somewhere on the booking page) the information is not available to the consumer at the time of booking a QF flight on the QF website.

On the other hand it is available to the consumer on the VA booking page (there is a link to "fare rules" on the bottom right).

Many thanks for the extract, which apparently comes from another airline.

Now, presumably part of the problem is that when a customer tries to change a partly used ticket their original fare class may or may not be available on a given flight. There appear to be 3 paid fare classes on QF in international flexible economy, for example (B,H.Y), and two in business class (C,J) ?

Many thanks for the clarification - do you have any insights as to the latter question on fare class being unavailable on a flight of choice when a consumer tries to rebook a partly used ticket?

BD1959

I'm guessing the subject in the article did not have Travel Insurance.

Regards,

BD

nancypants

Dave Noble

Sometimes with airlines there are fares that state that they cannot be used in this case - but otherwise the booking class originally used or next higher one with a valid fare can be used

if booked in O class r/t ( that does permit changes ) and then wanting to change the inbound after departure
Will need to pay change fee
If availability in O class - just change to O class - no fare difference
If lowest availability is there in K class and there is a valid K class fare , will take the sum of O class r/t fare + K class r/t fare and divide by 2. will then also need to pay difference between the original fare and the new fare

Looking at syd-hkg, all fares seem to be flexible, just that the lowest ones have change fees

Dave Noble

or didnt have insurance that covered such an eventuality

Platy

Thanks...and, presumably, in your example above both the O fare and the K fare applied in the calculation would be those prevalent at time of original ticket purchase (?)...

Dave Noble

yup

lokijuh

These are the rules, taken from Expert Flyer, the cheapest QF MEL-HKG fare. The higher the fare, the smaller the change fee, reducing to 0 for the flexible fares, which still have the same clauses. NB, the rules for changes before departure are similar, but the second part "OR - REPRICE USING FARES IN EFFECT WHEN TKT WAS ISSUED" becomes " OR - REPRICE USING FARES IN EFFECT TODAY ". So this reflect what Dave has indicated. Before departure: No change in fare class or routing = no change in fare, Change fare class or routing reprice at current ticket price. After departure: Repriced at historical ticket price, except when original fare conditions not met.

Platy

...thanks..which is why you would defer making your changes in your earlier example when the prices went up until after taking the first flight...nice move!

Platy

Thanks for the extract.

og