Okay, I've looked and looked, trying to get exact answers, but it appears that some answers are either unavailable or out-of-date.....

I have booked a First RTW from Seoul-ICN coming up in less than a month (ticketed by United, but mostly on other carriers, of course!). I paid for and ticketed it earlier this year, before the big RTW price increase, so I'm not wanting to re-issue/fare under any circumstances. I have a few questions that I wanted to pose to the experts here....

My first flight is on SQ F from ICN-SFO (what a way to start!), with a same-day United flight from SFO to SEA..... What are the exact circumstances in regards to changing the first flight? I'm not necessarily needing to do it, but I'm kind of intrigued by the rules.

Is it absolutely written in stone that the first flight cannot be changed? The date? The carrier? Even if the entire RTW is going to be finished well within the 1-year limit? What if the departure city and destination stayed the same, but I wanted to switch from SQ to UA () ICN-SFO-SEA? Or fly on the original departure day, but change the destination?

Also, UA agent (Korea) mentioned that my ticket was non-refundable.... I'm not wanting to do that, but I thought that a First Class ticket would be refundable, no?

Any info that would appease my curiosity would be great!
Thanks all!
-Paella747 :-:

Theoretically, any change whatsoever to the first segment. Literally: any change, will cause a reissue AND a reprice. You might get away with a mere date change, possibly, maybe, but that would be the absolute best you could do.

Technically, RTWs are non-refundable tickets because there is a provision in the penalties section about a penalty (duh) for refund. It's $125, IIRC. So, for your purposes, it is practically refundable -$125.

Thanks so much, Stevenshev! Always so helpful here on FT! ^ I appreciate the info!

I guess if I wanted to change the date of the start, I should have done a "smaller" flight to begin with (ie: ICN-PEK-SFO), that way, I could have just flown to PEK on the non-changeable first flight, flown back to Seoul on a seperate ticket, then back to PEK when I really needed to go transpac.... You live, you learn!

Just seems so odd paying so much for a First Class ticket, then being so "locked in" to the date! No biggie for me, as my summer is flexible, but it'd be nice to decide to go a day early at the last-minute or something! @:-)

I've changed dates on first flight of RTW several times without problems. I bought ex-KEF RTW's late last year that I keep pushing forward. As long as there are no re-routes you should be fine.

Remember - it's only the first segment that are "locked". Fly ICN-SFO and then re-route without problems, you only pay the changes in taxes plus $125 USD changing fee.

Tickets are refundable as you mention with $125 USD penalty.

Thanks for the info!

Here's another thought, as there are always accounts of changes being allowed due to airline-initiated schedule changes.......

I originally had about a two-hour layover in SFO while en route ICN-SEA. UA has cancelled the flight that I was on from SFO-SEA, and now I have about a six hour wait at SFO. You think that would be a sufficient enought time difference to demand a reroute of some sort? Not a date-change, but a routing one?

Nope

Again, they are supposed to refare for ANY change to the first coupon, so Bjornstrom has just gotten lucky. Not that you wouldn't, but are you willing to take the risk?

And, that having been said, I actually think the cancellation is enough for a reroute.

I've done this several times with different tickets. Rebookings with SK. They seem to forget about the SQ surcharges for 77W/380/A345 on SQ also so maybe it's all about who you ask?