Hi all,

I'm looking to book a return trip from Europe to China. Chinese visa rules force me to have a return ticket within a certain timeframe, but I know that I'm going to change that once I'm in China, and then I will also want to change my return flight. (I don't need visa advice, that part is set.)

I'm trying to find out which airlines have low fees for changing my return flight, but finding information seems like a nightmare. The following airlines usually have good prices on my route (I've done it several times before):
British Airways
Emirates
Aeroflot
Qatar (sometimes)
KLM (sometimes)
Finnair (sometimes)

Trying to find out how much I would pay for changing a flight is difficult. BA is the only one which provides a clear number. Aeroflot states 60� and 100� but says that these are only valid if booking from Russia and that from any other place one should contact their local office. Emirates is the worst, the don't even have any number of any kind, just saying that after booking one can log in and then the fee will be calculated and displayed. .... I have ruled out KLM as too expensive in this case, but haven't looked at Qatar and Finnair yet.

Does anyone have any advice? How much does it really cost to change a flight from China to Europe with Aeroflot and Emirates?

Just as a reminder - in a lot of cases, the change fee is not the only money you will pay when you need to change dates - you will also need to pay fare difference. And that can be huge if you pick weird dates and you are on a deeply discounted ticket and the fare bucket you are booked into is sold out or the price for that day is much higher.

So how much does it costs is a very hard question...

Why don't you simply buy a more flexible ticket?

Other from that - the exact change fee and rules will depend on what fare you buy - so it is very hard to find a unified rule for an airline.

I'd invest in Expertflyer or KVS at least for long enough to look up all of your relevant fare rules.

Change fees are laid out in the fare rules. You'll want to focus on voluntary changes after departure.

It's not on your list but Air China generally has very flexible tickets even in the cheaper fares. Believe most Chinese airlines are the same so depending on your actual destination, China Eastern or China Southern could be worth a look as well.

I've changed the outbound leg of Thai->EU Aeroflot return flight and that cost me 100 USD per change, regardless of destination or date change.

Never changed the return leg with Aeroflot.

Ms. hco changed return leg with KE free of charge. I could not believe it. It was not even full price Y flight.

Of course I know that I also need to pay the fare difference. I'm assuming that shouldn't be much because I can still book it way in advance, after I got the visa.

Why don't I just buy a more flexible ticket? With Emirates for example, I can't even seem to search for that. While searching for flights, the only option is to find the cheapest ones, for other options you need to log in?!

That's just it, those rules are not clear enough. Like Aeroflot saying the rules may be different when not booking from Russia. Or Emirates saying:
Seriously, this is the closest to an answer I can find in their conditions...
Well, Emirates also have this gem in their fare conditions:

Thanks for the hints about the Chinese airlines, I will check it.

@hco: What is "KE"? Korean Air?

Ok after calling the Emirates office they told me that for economy class tickets the change fee / penalty is usually 150 CHF. However, I found out that in July all Emirates flights via Dubai are more expensive due to high season, so the change fee plus fare difference would have been more expensive than I was willing to pay.

Since my actual return flight (the one I want to change my ticket to after buying it) would be in July, there is pretty much only one carrier remaining that has good prices, and that is Aeroflot.
I also called them to make sure that I can change the ticket, and they said the fee will be 100 EUR plus fare difference. So, despite having read many bad things about Aeroflot customer service and payment options, I'm going to risk it to save around 200 EUR (that's the difference to the next more expensive airline).

Yes. Korean Air. Maybe not the most straight forward for you in this case. Unless you want a trip with nice stopover in Seoul.

100 EUR sounds about right with Aeroflot. Like I said, it was 100 USD in Thai.

I was not happy with Aeroflot call centre in Moscow, but their official agent in Bangkok was superfriendly and helpful.

Perhaps you should just buy a throwaway ticket to a cheap destination (HKG, BKK, SGN, etc) from China, and then only book a one way ticket to China from Europe? Air Asia has some cheap tickets. Or find reward ticket that you can change cheaply, or free.