LOL. :D My favorite is JHM, although now that HA has resumed service there, it's at least conceivable. And, of course, good luck finding a WP flight anywhere...

I thought that the Continental Connection flights that Colgan operated in the northeast -- in the early 2000s, I think? -- might have included BUF, but I can't find any evidence of that now. (I did find a mainline UA BUF-ROC flight from 1999 though. :)

Still, keep in mind that the routing table only governs transfers; so, if you can find a direct flight from BUF-LAS, presumably via ORD, you'd be able to use it. :)

So I'd like to return to GRR instead, which I'm guessing has similar rules.
I see there is confirmable PZ space too.

I'm booked in (N) (which is actually ANA premium economy, despite UA showing regular economoy).

So Here's two additional questions:
When I ask for this change, will it matter if I ask for the NH native or UA codeshare number? Also, The fare class I had (N), is not available, but G and E are. When paired with a connecting UA number, UA gives the Codeshare number with different fare buckets, and I'm unsure of fare mapping (but could look it up). I'd like to get E or G so I can use a GPU, that would be my goal, I just know this is all going to confuse whatever poor UA agent picks up my call.

So I'd like to switch to BKK-NRT-IAD-ORD-GRR, or if that iad-orr is a violation, BKK-NRT-ORD-GRR (iad-grr works but is a crj200, no polaris lounge). But I'm guessing the R fares might have a provision that one of the flights has to be on a flight that has R? Otherwise, why would the fare exist? Not sure if this is related:

Yes, the GRR-BKK fare has a routing table that appears to be identical.

The mapping is UA O -> NH G, A -> E, and R -> N.

And, yes, it will matter whether you ask for the NH native or UA codeshare number. They have two different sets of inventory, which may not match.

On the R fare I'm looking at, you can't go TYO-WAS-CHI-GRR. (If you read through the routing table for DTT, and substitute GRR, note that WAS is only in the first group of cities listed; if you want to stop in WAS, it has to be adjacent to GRR -- no intermediate stops).

But, there are a couple of problems. The first is that if R isn't available on the BKK-NRT flight you want, you're going to have to upfare the entire return to A/E. While this will let you use your GPU, it's going to be really expensive. The second is that you do need a PE cabin on the overwater flight; you cannot use this fare on a flight that doesn't have that cabin, even though you're planning to upgrade. The only way to get on a flight that doesn't have PE is to re-fare, either to business directly or down to a W fare.

To get an idea of the fare difference, try pricing out similar flights, using multi-city search, starting from DTW. You're right that you don't want to just do a one-way search.

If you care to post your original travel dates (outbound and return), your original ticketing date (from your receipt), and your proposed return date, somebody can provide additional information -- but, ultimately, it sounds like you have enough to call UA and at least to get a quote.

With the JV UA has in place, would substituting the TPAC segment to an ANA with PE be doable without any other hurdles?

If you can get a UA codeshare with R inventory, then it would "just work." Any other change would require a re-fare. That's an additional hurdle, but it shouldn't' be an insurmountable one.

Thanks for the info. This is one of those scenarios where it would just be so much easier if the online change worked. I'm working on site again today at our customer, and will attempt to call in and see what happens and report back later tonight.

Notably, this isn't some fundamental principle, but because the fare template for PE seems to contain

Because of the JV you could fly an NH native code by picking up an NH fare component instead, but they only publish G and E fares so this would be substantially more expensive.

Yes, precisely. (I had checked that before posting :) ).

Yeah, I asked, it was an additional $1200 or something to upgrade to PE. Which is stupid, because my ticket was already $3,000, I was already in (discounted) premium economy. I would think $4,000 would have bought a roundtrip business ticket.

Anyways I was able to reroute and confirm a GPU next week. Lots of PZ on Wednesday from NRT-US Hubs (saw IAD, ORD, LAX, SFO). Wasn't too painful thankfully. This was actually the first time I've ever had to make a Change for a flight (not counting SDC/Standby).

$4000 might have bought a roundtrip business ticket -- if you'd done that in advance. :/ Then you'd still have needed P inventory on the flights that you wanted.

It's not uncommon for higher PE fare classes to be more expensive than lower J classes, just like it's not uncommon for higher Y classes to be more expensive than lower PE classes (or even lower J classes).

Glad you were able to make it work. ^

Rather than starting a new thread, I thought I'd post my question here.

I booked a TLV-YYZ-YOW/IAD-LHR flight directly with United a few months ago on United ticket stock. TLV-YYZ-YOW was an AC fare and AC aircraft booked in Z class (discount business). IAD-LHR was booked for next April in discount economy. Total fare was about USD2150, the vast majority of that fare for the TLV-YOW, which was flown about a month ago. About USD 100 of the base fare was for the IAD-LHR.

As I now plan to travel, I just called United to change the remaining IAD-LHR coupon to a DCA-EWR-AMS business class fare. They have quoted about $3500 to make this change - agent stated D class is the lowest she could go, but told me she did see B/P available on the flights.

On ITASoftware, I am able to price out an AC TLV-YOW in Z class for a random date in November, and then DCA-EWR-AMS in P class (although DCA-EWR is in B - one cabin) for about $3000 total. B and P class seats are available on the relevant DCA-EWR-AMS legs. The base fare for WAS-AMS is USD 900.

In my mind, I expected to pay somewhere around USD 1200 for the change (the new base of $900 less paid base of about $100, $300 change fee, and any changes to taxes/surcharges).

Any idea why the fare would have jumped so high or suggestions on how to proceed?

It's very difficult to follow your explanation; in particular, without dates it is impossible to recreate your fare, or the applicable fare rules. Without those, no one can provide a definitive answer.

But at a very basic level, the answer (which I think you already know) is that UA is refaring your entire ticket and you're losing the benefit of the very heavily discounted fare you originally purchased. That does not surprise me at all. IMO it's not realistic to completely alter the itinerary, not just routing and dates, but destination as well, and expect to keep the benefits of an absolute bargain basement international business class fare.

A key consideration in changing a ticket is the change needs to be within the fares rules of the original ticket -- dates, day of the week, routing, destinations, .... It is different than booking a new ticket and the prior routing rules can significantly limit the options. When you go outside the fare rules, many times this will reverting to full-fare options only.

Have you considered keeping the original routing and adding a separate LHR-AMS segment?

Yes the colgan air continental flight had that major crash landing at buf....

In general your question makes sense and it seems like you should be able to do what you want... however without details it's pretty hard to speculate. Have you tried HUCA? In my experience manually pricing tickets doesn't always go quite right.

If you post the full fare construction it's possible your historical Z fare differs from the currently available one, or there is something wrong with the IAD-LHR fare. When did you purchase? Technically you need the WAS-AMS fare table that was published on the date of ticketing, not today: