let’s say you book a certain flight (or set of flights) because it’s the only way you can get that super low fare, in this case, San Francisco to Moscow for $339.86 round trip. my return flights on that itinerary:
man,that 4:30 AM flight sure isn’t appealing, but oh well. as i always say, beggars can’t be choosers.
but lo and behold, a schedule change notification arrives in your email:
sure, 5:45 AM is better than 4:30 AM, and it doesn’t affect my connections, but there’s a notice on Delta’s page that appears when you’re affected by a change:
(even though this flight is technically operated by KLM and not Delta, it’s a Delta codeshare, so i think that’s why this applies? you may have luck even if it’s not a codeshare?)
basically, the schedule change gave me a free way to change my flight to something better. i tried changing it online but it wanted to charge me the fare difference and a change fee (about $700 total, if i recall correctly). so, i called and got a very friendly agent who was more than happy to change my flights to something a lot nicer:
it might have helped that i’m Platinum elite on Delta, but no matter what, the rules are the rules and i met all of the requirements set forth in that conditions box (although i think that last one is up to interpretation, since i suppose none of my other return flights were impacted by this change.).
other airlines’ policies differ, but many of them will let you completely change or even cancel, if there’s a big enough change in origin departure or destination arrival times, or if the connection times get a bit too close for comfort. i’ve heard reports of people being able to cancel an entire itinerary and get a refund for even a small change in timing. if you’re lucky (and it’s happened a lot with United in my experience), you might get rebooked into a better fare class which may allow for upgrades.
moral of the story: it never hurts to ask (nicely). [hidden moral of the story, which should be everyone’s mantra: if at first you don’t succeed, hang up and call again. (but don’t push it — who knows what they’re noting in the record every time you call!)]
nice.
what about on an award?
on united?
thanks
In my experience and from what I’ve heard from others, United will open award space on their own flights if they need to (especially if no other reasonable choice) but I don’t think they have any pull over their partners. Come to think of it, a 1K agent I think opened up space for me recently (or she had access to inventory which showed as unavailable [regular ol X] on the website?) to condense a complicated itinerary over two days and three(? Two?) partners to just one day and one partner. Good luck!!!