Cancelling/rebooking a flight
 

Hi,

Could you please advise me what to do. I have this flight booked to NZ for 15th Sep but due to serious lack of funds, I can't afford to go on this date and will need to stay home in the UK for a further 6 months before I can even fly out.
I can't afford cancellation or amendment fees now, I was told that I couldn't change/rebook this flight to after Dec, is there anything else that I can do?

Thank you

Nope . . . You have to decide if eating the full ticket price (which is money already spent) is worse than paying the change fees.

Nope . . . You have to decide if eating the full ticket price (which is money already spent) is worse than paying the change fees.

sorry for the duplicate post -- the website locked up while I was posting . . .

You don't actually "pay" the change fee. You get the value of your cancelled ticket minus the change fee and you can apply that toward a new ticket. It sounds like your ticket expires in December.

If you bought a refundable ticket, you call the airline, cancel the ticket, and they give you your money back.

However, these tickets are costly, so many people buy a non-refundable ticket. Non-refundable means just that;. You don't get your money back. At best, they give you a voucher for the cost of your original ticket, less the change fees you agreed to. The voucher is usually good only until one-year from the date of your original purchase, and only for airfare on the original airline, at current prices. Often there are additional restrictions, listed in the contract of carriage that so many of us fail to read.

Sorry, but I don't see a pleasant result in your situation.

There could be a pleasant result. You could take a trip by the end of the year and apply the residual value to a flight to another destination the airline serves. It won't get you to NZ, but it could get you someplace closer and cheaper. What airline is this?

<I can't afford cancellation or amendment fees now, I was told that I couldn't change/rebook this flight to after Dec>

Jeff_Costa_Rica is right, you don't have to pay the change fee now. You can find out when the tickets expire, do nothing now, and rebook when you can afford to pay the fees, but before they expire. You will also have to pay any difference in fare, so track the fares carefully before you rebook.

The only other advice I have is to be very, very nice when you call to talk to the airlines--lay out any special circumstances you may have calmly. Schmooze, in other words. Ask politely if there's anything at all that can be done to help you. Sometimes you get lucky and get an agent in the mood to do you a favor--but understand, a favor is what it would be.

It sounds as though you bough non-refundable tickets, and so they don't owe you anything.

Again, you are not "paying" a change fee. Say the original ticket cost $1,000 and has a $200 change fee. You then have $800 to apply toward the value of a new ticket at current prices. You are out the $200, yes, but you are not forking over another $200 as long as your new ticket costs $800 or less.

It would help to know the airline, fare, and change fee of the original ticket.

OK -- I'm lost. If the OP can't travel for at least 6 months and apparently he purchased his ticket last year so any voucher must be used by December -- isn't he SOL?

I took it that the OP can't afford the expensive, extended stay in New Zealand right now. Maybe a shorter, closer trip would work between now and the end of the year? That's why I suggested applying the residual fare toward a cheaper ticket on the same airline. Knowing which airline this is would help.

Yes, the idea of applying the fare to a more manageable trip is a good one that I hope the OP pursues.