Does anyone know what it cost to change a first class ticket on Continental?

Continental would know...

This is what the "Rules and restrictions" says on Expedia...

CHANGES

ANY TIME
PER COUPON CHARGE EUR 25.00/USD 30.00.
NOTE - CHANGES ALLOWED AT ANY TIME
FOR EUR25/USD30 PER PERSON
PER SECTOR.

------

DEPENDING ON AVAILABILITY A
PAYMENT OF DIFFERENCE IN
FARES MAY ALSO APPLY.

==============================

Just curious... what itinerary are you flying? I found it to be strikingly difficult to even find a trans-atlantic route actually operated on Continental equipment - - not sure why - - have they given every route over to their Sky Team partners?

The remarks above are for their nonstop service, EWR-BFS (Newark-Belfast), at a fare of $3,258.05, roundtrip, all taexs included (traveling a week from tomorrow).

Best wishes,

Rex

It depends on the fare class. Some have no fee. The common fee that I have seen posted most frequently is $100 US.

This assumes you make the change through Continental. If you are going through Expedia, etc., I am certain they charge a fee over and above what the airline charges.

I agree with Travelnut that the best source of this information would be go call Continental. Have the reservation number at hand and they can tell you, but again, they would not know about any fee the travel agent, or Expedia, adds on. No charge for information.

Before I closed the Expedia window, I compared to the continental site. The wording for changes was identical. And the fare, in this particular case was 40-some dollars cheaper on Expedia.

Rexmd, you looked up a z class fare, which is not an unrestricted class. If you look up an unrestricted class fare (I think j is one) you will find that Continental makes no charge for changes, but you will pay a couple of thousand dollars more for the ticket.

So the answer remains that the cost depends on where the OP got the ticket, and what fare class it is. The OP could probably look this up on Continental's web site by looking up the reservation and clicking on restrictions, but I think calling is easier.

Hmmm... you're right. When I clicked the box "Avoid most change penalties", the fare shown is $5,463.05

I actually thought that the $3200 fare seemed a bit low, for BizFirst, with only 8 days advance purchase.

So, the first answer on this thread is the best answer.

rex - Continental operates more US-Europe routes than any other airline.

[Unfortunately, many of them on the dreaded 757-200.]

rkk... you know, I would have thought that as well - - but for some strange reason, i could not get them to come up... specifying Continental as the carrier on Expedia. That's why I phrased it as a question, not a statement. When you look on the "Destinations served" page of Continental's own website, there is a table showing the myriad partner airlines serving every conceivable destination on their system - - and most of the European destinations list numerous options with more KLM, it seemed than any other carrier. DUB and BFS were two of the few destinations that showed ONLY Continental - - and I couldn't even get EWR-DUB to show BizClass service on a Continental operated flight it could mean that it is simply sold out on the arbitrary departure date I chose, I guess - - only 8 days away). And I didn't try that "Avoid most change penalties" option back when I was "fishing".

I just used travelocity's "Request Fare Info" and look up some CO fares to Europe. All the "Z" fares have a $300 change penalty. "D" and "J" fares don't.

CO does their own to DUB, BFS AND SNN, dunno about elsewhere ---

REX -- ALL the above flights are the 757 -- Maybe they don't Do Business Class on the little jets????? I wouldn't know personally --- I'm too cheap to spring for anything more expensive than 'restricted coach'.

Bob

All Continental flights to Europe have two classes - BusinessFirst and coach. BusinessFirst are about 170-degree recline, with about 55-60" pitch. The seats are slightly different among the 757, 767 and 777, but dimensions are similar. The AV is much worse on the 757, but CO are starting to install premium AVOD on their 757's BF cabin, which will be better than that on the 767/777.

European destinations that CO flies to include (all non-stop):

From Newark:

Amsterdam (767)
Belfast (757)
Berlin (757)
Birmingham (757, may be 767 in summer)
Bristol (757)
Brussels (767)
Dublin (757, 767 in summer)
Edinburgh (757, maybe 767 summer)
Frankfurt (767)
Geneva (767)
Glasgow (757, maybe 767 summer)
Hamburg (757)
Lisbon (757)
London-Gatwick (mixed 777, 767, 757)
Madrid (777)
Manchester (767, may be 757)
Milan (767)
Oslo (757)
Paris (mixed 777/767/757)
Rome (767)
Shannon (757, maybe 767 in summer)
Stockholm (757)
Zurich (767)

Starting this summer, there will also be fligths to Cophenhagen, Cologne and Barcelona (all 757).

From Houston, they fly to Amsterdam (767), London Gatwick (777x2) and Paris (777).

They also have a seasonal CLE-LGW flight (not sure plane type).

Very strange. I know that I checked EWR-LON, EWR-PAR, EWR-DUB and IAH-PAR - - and got no indication of CO flights (on Expedia) before I went to the Continental website.

Again, I cannot rule out the possibility that they are simply sold out on the (one and only) departur day that I checked - - and I did not try "Avoid most change penalties" to force it to check J inventory - - still, what a weird coincidence.

And trying it now, I get totally different results for EWR-LON and Continental comes up every time with various permutations, but all airlines are over $6000. Can't explain it.

The EWR-BFS hit(s) (one only, actually, for nonstop) are unchanged.

Thanks for th education, which befuddles me as much as anything.

As I recall, Expedia doesn't always list every flight if there aren't any so-called "discounted" tickets available on that flight...it would seem more reasonable to go to the Continental website and look up flights rather than going to a search engine, "fishing" or not.

to intrepid1:

<< Expedia doesn't always list every flight if there aren't any so-called "discounted" tickets available on that flight... >>

Wow... that is surprising - - and it seems not to match my experience - - I see choices quite often that sure seem to be full fare choices ("only&quot, but I never clicked on them to see what fare lass they are. Seems odd that they would show no seats available in BizFirst when full J seats are indeed available. Of course, my "search" is too anecdotal. There might have been, indeed, none available - - and then due to a cancellation, one opened up (I was only looking for one seat).

<< ...it would seem more reasonable to go to the Continental website and look up flights rather than going to a search engine, "fishing" or not. >>

Sure, that's undisputable - - it's just that (I thought) I knew exactly where to look for (cut/paste/cite) the ules on change penalties on Expedia... that's the reason I thought it would be eaiest/fastest to check.

and finally, to rkk...

<<All the "Z" fares have a $300 change penalty.>>

Don't you mean $30?

I mean $300. At least that's on Travelocity's fare rules.

$300 is small change. A "D" or "J" fare to Europe is $6,000-10,000. A "Z" fare is $2,000-2,500. Can't complain about a $300 fee, can we?

The $30 may be what Expedia charges for handling the change, which is in addition to the airline's penalty.

Actually, a reference to the exact same $30 fee can be found on the continental.com website - - at least with reference to the $3200 fare that I originally cited. I do not know what fare class that is/was.

I looked up a EWR-CDG "Z" class fare in May. It's a $2,500 roundtrip, fare basis code "ZHR50APE".

If you look at fare rule on continental.com, the 1st 4 lines say:

"FARE RULES TEXT
CHANGES
ANY TIME
CHARGE USD 300.00."
and so on.

A $6,000+ "D" fare doesn't have that. But they do charge US$100 for a cancellation (i.e. refund).