? about flight change charges

[sharona]

This is specifically about Jet Blue but I guess it could also apply elsewhere. I paid $350 per rt ticket. Prices dropped by $91 per ticket so I called and got a credit. Now I'm thinking of changing the flight time (in advance, not waiting until midnight the day of).

From the website I think I understand that the cost to do this would be $100 per ticket PLUS the cost of any applicable difference in the fare. My question is which fare are they going to use to calculate the difference? The original price I paid ($350)? The "new" price after the credit was given ($350-$91 = $259) ? Or the price of my current flights at the time I make the change (right now $315)?

TIA

 

[jlewisinsyr]

They will use the price you paid net any credits you already received.

So in your case, your net price is $259. So you need to pay the difference between the $259 and the new ticket price.

 

[lost*in*cyberspace]

Your original ticket price is irrelevant.

Think hard before changing the flight time. The cost can be very high. Or next time, pay the extra cost for a refundable fare.

 

[sharona]

Thanks for the info. The reason for the possible ticket change is that we can now leave much earlier in the day than originally thought. So we would arrive at noon instead of 9pm! A whole extra day of vacation...

My thinking is that if the price difference is very small, I can use the $91 per ticket credit that we got to offset the $100 change fee and just pay the price difference + $9 for each ticket.

I don't want to wait until midnight the day of the flight as the only way I will make the change is if I can sit next to dd8 and it seems unlikely that we will get seats together so late in the process. There are 3 of us but only 1 needs to sit with dd. My current plan is to watch the ticket prices and if the price difference gets into the "do-able" range, I'll call and if seats together are available we'll do it. If it never gets to that point, I'll still check at midnight the day of and if seats together are possible, we'll do the $40 change.

If anyone has any other ideas/options to make this work, I would love to get your input. Also, any input on the likelihood seats together being available the day of the flight (BOS to MCO, Sat 9am ns on JB)...

 

[OrangeCountyCommuter]

You are basically reticketing.

So if the ticket is now selling for $350 that's what you have to pay using your current ticket, your "credit" etc...

So right now it's going to cost $315 right? And you have $350 Right? (I am a little confused, but I am assuming Jet Blue didn't charge you the $100 for issuing the credit)

So the cost for the ticket you want is 415. (315 plus the 100 change fee) you have $350 so the additional funds they will want per person is $65.

Of course this is just a guess. If you want to know what it's REALLY going to cost call them and ask!

I am not sure how it works on JB but on other airlines standby often means just that.. you stand by until the end of boarding to get a seat which means getting "togehter with the family" may not be an option which is why I don't recommend it if you can't be sepeated!

 

[sharona]

Thanks - Right now the difference in my current ticket and the one I want is too much $$ to make a change. I'm going to keep an eye on it and if it goes down I'll call to see the exact cost of making the change. I just wasn't sure which price to compare it to. Another question that just occurred to me is am I comparing the total cost of the rt ticket or just the BOS to MCO part? I booked it as rt.

We would not fly standby the day of, instead we would use the option JB has to change to another flight same day same destination for $40 but can't do that until midnight on flight day and less likely to get seats together so late in the process. Really at this point just making sure I know my options.

Originally could not leave until after 2pm on Saturday due to a family event but just found out that it's been moved to a different weekend so was hoping to sneak in one more day of vaca...

 

[sharona]

Updating to provide info in case it can help others. I was able to use the JB travel bank credit to pay for the flight change. Had to add $57 oop to make up the shortfall. The difference in flight cost went down to $60pp + it was $50pp to make the change - total for 3 was $330 less $273 credit = $57.

I tried to make the change online and it let me get all the way to the end and bumped an error to contact JB due to technical difficulties. I called and spoke to a great Rep who really had to work to get this to go through. At first she thought it would not allow the credit to be applied to the change cost but she kept trying different ways and if finally went through. We were able to get 2 seats together and the other across the aisle in the back of the pane. Not the nice 4th row seats we had on the original flight but good enough - it's only 3 hours.

Very happy to have a whole extra day of vacation (arriving at 12pm instead of 830pm) for only $57 total. Even if they had not been able to apply the credit, I probably would have sprung for the $110 each. It will be years before we are back to WDW so want to make the most of it!