planr

Booking a ticket (in Y) to SYD this week. I need to be flexible with both the departure and return dates.

According to the fare class info, there are no charges in either case for a "simple" date change, but for Re-Issuing there will be a nominal fee (2K baht) plus any applicable change in fare/surcharges etc.

So my question is, what is the difference between the two? Let's say I buy a ticket leaving April 6 and returning April 30 but need to change (prior to departure) to April 12 and May 12, as an example. Can I do this for free as I won't need to be booked in a different fare class/bucket?

Many Thanks!

BKKROP

If the ticket says you can change the dates FOC, then it is free of charge. Say for instance you didn't use the return, you found something or somebody in Sydney more interesting. For the sake of the exercise let's also say this was a 12 months ticket, rather than lose the return sector you could have the ticket reissued/changed.

vbroucek

I do not think that BKKROP's answer is fully correct. If you change date and there is no seat in the original bucket (unless when you said Y you did not mean generally economy, but really Y class), then the ticket will be re-issued. AFAIK, some airlines (and I admit I do not know about TG in this case), have mandatory re-issue if you change date prior outbound departure, because they want to change the validity of the tickets as well.

BKKROP

[QUOTE=vbroucek;16019816]when you said Y you did not mean generally economy, but really Y classQUOTE]

With respect, if you read the OP questio, it says "there are no charges for simple date change.

This immediately scrubs out most of the fares on sale to Australia, but it does leave Y, which is the class of travel we are addressing.

All airlines will reissue if you go to another class.

So, when you say the reply is incorrect, is it only incorrect if I was replying to a hypothetical, which was not mentioned but the OP may or may not have been thinking about, but you thought the OP intended

vbroucek

With all due respect, I did not say incorrect, I said "not fully correct" and that's big difference. I still think that if the change is for outbound, the ticket will need to be re-issued to reflect the new validity... I might be wrong, since I do not know all TG policies, but I know that it would be the case with (for example) LX.

planr

Hi Guys

The fare class I am booking is Q class (QLE3MTH)... relevant fare conditions are

Maximum Stay : 3 Months

Reservation Change :

Before day of departure :
- Flight/Date changes : Permitted within ticket validity ( Ticket must be reissued if higher fare concerned )
- Rerouting : Permitted with fee THB1000 ( Ticket must be reissued )
-Reissuing : Permitted with fee THB1000. To be higher fare, collect different fare plus taxes/ surcharges (if any)

After day of departure :
- Flight/Date changes : Permitted within ticket validity ( Ticket must be reissued if higher fare concerned )
- Rerouting : Permitted with fee THB2000 ( Ticket must be reissued )
- Reissuing : Permitted with fee THB2000. To be higher fare, collect different fare plus taxes/ surcharges (if any)

----

Now as far as I can tell, there is very little difference between this fare and a true Y fare except the max stay (validity?) which is 1 year instead of the 3 months above.... 3 months is more than enough for this trip.

So it appears that if I need to change the dates and only higher fares (or fare classes) are available, I'll get knocked for a few baht plus the fare/tax/surcharge...

vbroucek

I believe that your fare is actually a "special" fare, so it is actually quite different from full Y.
So, using your example dates
For outbound, there seem to be plenty of Q seats on 6/4/2011 on all three flights, but for example on 8/4/2011 there are Q seats left only on TG471 and again plenty of seats on 12/4/2011.
For inbound, on 30/4/2011 there are Q seats on TG478 only and on 12/5/2011 there are plenty of seats available on both flights.
IMHO, there are real chances that Q seats will not be available on days that you will really want to travel or that you will need to change the flight number. Hence there are good chances that your ticket will need to be re-issued.

ohsopc

Yes and if your new travel plans include any date that are outside your ticket validity (original date of departure + 3 months) you will also be charged for reissue. For example, if your original date of departure is 15 March, and you want to fly out 14 March you will need to reissue, but if you want to change to 16 March it will be free of charge. (On some tickets you will see it annotated NVB - not valid before and NVA - not valid after)

planr

Good info, thanks for sharing!