TheGreatTree

I have SEA-YYC-NRT booked for September, and from both routes being affected by the schedule change this past weekend (SEA pushed back an hour and lands YYC at 3:54pm and the NRT flight moved up by 4 hours departing YYC at 3pm), I now need a time machine to make this connection . I read from the WS travel agents website that

So I gave them a call asking to move the departure from SEA to YVR but agent said that it isn't possible because it is a different country and instead offered SEA-YVR-NRT departing at 7am with a 5.5 hr connection in YVR (which is fine but not ideal as I live in YVR and would require me to overnight in SEA the night before, whereas the schedule before allowed me to travel from YVR to SEA the morning of to catch SEA-YYC).

My question is has anyone tried this before and got the same answer? Or is this a HUCA situation? Would like to sort through possible solutions before calling them again to finalize the change

cgyroof

I suspect it may also have to do with the different price structures of flights between the 2 countries (i.e. trying to capture the USA-to-Japan market, while ripping off the domestic Canada-Japan market) as to why your request is being denied,

TheGreatTree

Good point, I just checked my fare calculation line on the ticket and shows SEA WS YYC (cost) WS TYO (cost) WS X/YYC YVR (cost) - which to me seems like SEA-YYC can be dropped if I forfeit that first part of the fare, unlike the return flight which is tied all the way until YVR. I also inquired about dropping SEA-YYC but it was the same response about different country.

aerobod

You mean the WS $576 one-way YVR to NRT tickets in Sept on many days are not low enough, compared with the typical $1000+ SEA to NRT price in Sept? Doesn’t look like SEA to NRT on WS is bookable now, they probably removed it from the schedule.

TheGreatTree

I still see SEA-YYC-NRT on WS bookable for $740CAD on most days in September, at least when redirected from Google Flights to the WS site as a multi-city trip. But you're right in that directly searching for SEA-NRT on WS is no longer bookable, which is probably the reason why I wasn't offered that option - not that I would take it anyways considering it is overnight

tracon

Which airline?
International itineraries allow a 24 hour connection.
You should be able to get an afternoon/evening SEA-YVR and spend the night at home.

TheGreatTree

SEA-YVR on DL and then YVR-NRT on JL
Sidenote: I'm aware that they can only put me on WS marketed flights, but there is a WS-coded DL flight leaving SEA at 11:31am and arrives YVR at 12:45pm leaving a 1 hr 20 min connection time to catch the 2:05pm JL flight - which looks doable and under the MCT of 1 hr but not offered to me, likely due to WS only selling econoflex right now.

kbooks66

While I can't help, thanks for posting this as I am on the same route in October and effected by this. They never emailed me with the flight change though. Being in Seattle id likely take the Delta/JL option,

TheGreatTree

I also never received the flight change email and proactively reached out when I noticed there was a schedule change. BTW, on the return flight they offered the nonstop NRT-YVR for me, so you may be able to route NRT-YVR-SEA instead of through YYC depending on your preference of using the Elevation Lounge or a faster journey home.

kbooks66

I kept my flight home because the customer support person was so slow. However, kind of regretting it because I just realized I may be able credit the flight to Alaska because it is a JAL flight. That being said really excited one way will be on JAL especially because I have loved every JAL flight I have been on and only paid like $330 a person r/t for this.

TheGreatTree

I don't think you would be able to credit it to Alaska given that they would've ticketed you on the WS-code instead of a JL-code, unless your YVR-NRT shows JL17 rather than WS5907?

TheGreatTree

May I ask what date is your JAL flight? I just got off the phone with WS and they told me that both DL and JAL were not releasing the seat to them after checking both days prior to my departure. I had my suspicions so I checked the ticket during the call and plugged the DL PNR into DL website and only gave me YVR-NRT on JAL - confirming no seat released on DL. Then I plugged in JL PNR into JAL's website and could not find the reservation at all - which confirmed nothing on JAL either. My only option left now is to do SEA-YVR-YYC-NRT and NRT-YYC-YVR

Update: I called back immediately after posting this and got an agent who gave me exactly what I fed to them in terms of new dates/flight numbers within 10 minutes. In the end I managed to get 2 more days before my original departure on SEA-YVR-NRT and 1 more day after original return with the NRT-YVR nonstop. WOW HUCA really made a big difference there as I spent over an hour on the phone prior to this call

kbooks66

October 20. I am able to access my reservation and select seats on Delta, but I could not access my reservation on JAL. JAL's system sucks though, so I am going to give them a call tomorrow morning to see if they can access it. I am trying to get a bassinet seat so I will likely have to call anyways.

kbooks66

TheGreatTree

I have the exact same flights as you now for September but rebooked in Y class on both legs instead of K/T. Also able to select seats on Delta. In hindsight I was too bummed at the moment and forgot to ask for the flights the previous night instead.
Keep me updated on the JAL website as I also can't access the reservation on JAL.