BKK-CNX flight change
 

Hello. We are flying on UA award tickets from IST to BKK on to CNX, with an overnight in BKK.
We are connecting to CNX with a 22 hour connection. We would be interested in taking the TG flight somewhat later in the day, thereby making the connection more than 24 hours.
is this something that TG will likely allow and can we do this in BKK upon arrival with TG ground staff. Thanks for any advice.

This award ticket was issued by UA, so if you wanted to change in advance to the later flight to CNX , then you should approach UA.

I am not sure how THAI would deal with an ‘on the spot’ request to take a later flight.

cagcag - I note you are UA 1K MM. You are probably aware that on a booked UA award ticket, if you made a connection that is over 24 hours, then you are requesting a "stop-over". You are allowed a stop-over of this type on a UA award ticket, if it is a round-trip, using the "excursionist perk", described in the UA forum. Good luck. :)

that's probably why OP tries to change it "inofficially" or "ad hoc"

Exactly. On this itinerary we have already applied the excursionist option. Changing with UA is not possible. Hence, my attempt to override fare rules by addressing this proposed flight change directly with TG upon arrival in BKK.

if you ask politely with a good reason, why you would like to postpone, you have a good chance to get what you want, unless the data of your ticket technically block this move…

TG's flights to CNX are seldom fully booked as there are 5 flights on TG metal and several more on Thai Smile

I have asked TG in the past about changing time/dates for domestic flights on award tickets issued by LH and SK - even on sold out flights where I was prepared to take a later flight - and every time the answer is that you need to contact the issuer of the ticket to have the ticket changed. TG is not going to touch flights on an award ticket issued by other airline and your chance of TG accepting to change your ticket to a later flight is close to zero. Maybe it would be higher if you asked at the airport to get on an earlier same day flight; but to get on a later flight - forget it!

Thanks for your honest assessment of our situation. BTW, what would happen if we "missed" our scheduled flight? Would we be forced to pay for tickets? What might happen to the balance of the itinerary? We surely don't want cancellation due to being recorded as being no-show.

If you miss your scheduled flight, you run the risk of UA cancelling the remainder of your itinerary. It would be unwise to "miss" your flight. :)

If you "no-show" for the TG flight to CNX most likely the remainder of your ticket will be cancelled. You need to have TG (or UA) change/rebook the ticket - or you may also try to ask TG to remove the domestic leg from ticket, i.e. you forfeit this coupon of the ticket. If TG accepts the latter (which I doubt TG will do) it will not be without risks - I believe TG needs to mark the flight as being flown/the coupon to be have been used, but if the goes wrong/TG staff screw this up you will have no-showed for the flight and the remainder of the ticket may be cancelled.

Another option is travel to CNX as booked and buy a return ticket CNX-BKK, i.e. you make a quick turnaround at CNX and book the return segment, BKK-CNX for a date/time at your convenience. Yes, annoying that you have to take a short trip to CNX but at least it will provide the opportunity to stay in BKK for longer (as this is apparently what you are looking for). Domestic flights in Thailand are cheap so it is not going to cost you a lot (but you will of course have to spent spent some time going to the airport, check-in, flying to CNX and reverting immediately to BKK etc)

Excellent thorough advice. Thanks again

I have made a number of BKK-CNX-BKK mini-mileage runs on THAI, usually costing around THB 2000 return (USD 62) if you book early enough. Also consider WE, PG, DD and FD (all Low Cost Carriers).