We have already booked our flight tickets for May. We used flycheapabroad.com. Our return flight leaves Fiumicino at 9 am (Alitalia) to Amsterdam for a layover before returning to Minneapolis. All the other legs of our trip are with Northwest/KLM. Now, when I go back, I see a much more appealing return flight. The timing is better for us and its not on Alialia (which I'm nervous about flying with them). My question: if we wanted to switch our flight for our return trip...can this be done? How? I've never flown internationally before, so this is all pretty new to me. I emailed flycheapabroad with this question, but never heard back from them. Will there be significant surcharges for doing this? Or is it out of the question? Would I keep trying to contact flycheapabroad, or try NWA or KLM??
Thanks for any info...
Posted by
Seattle, WA
1317 posts
Oh boy...general rule I see with air carriers, and Northwest in particular is the "no waivers, no favors". If they mess up (as they recently did for me), they'll fix it, but if you booked something and changed it...good luck to you.
I don't think flycheapabroad will be able to help you here. They're a travel consolidator and just sell you the ticket they have available (which might be why you didn't see the appealing return flight the first time). Since you are in the U.S., KLM will just kick you over to NWA.
You can call them and ask, but I think you are looking at a change fee for each ticket that will be in the $150-250 range (I can't recall exactly).
If you somehow do persuade NWA to make the change, be sure you get new tickets issued!! They failed to do this for us, and we had a horrid time getting back home, including having to purchase two new tickets at the counter (which NWA is in the process of refunding).
A possible long-shot option is to sit on it, hope Alitalia does stop flying, then call NWA and get them to change it. But since Alitalia has been hovering on the edge for several years and is still around...
Overall though, I think you are stuck with what you booked.
Posted by
Bend, OR, United States
1167 posts
There is a "Terms & Conditions" tab at the bottom of the FCA website that will give you most of the information you need. It specifically says you must contact them by phone to make changes and that the change, if possible, will be something like $300 plus any difference in fare. Good luck.
Posted by
OH, OH, USA
1158 posts
It depends. If you bought a non-refundable tickets , you will need to pay the price again.
It looks like that site sells these type of tickets.
Why don't you call them up?
Posted by
Tresana, Highlands Ranch, CO, USA
23562 posts
Unless you are prepared to pay some significant fees, you are probably stuck. I guessing that you bought it because it was the cheapest ticket available. The Alialia segment is probably what make it cheap. Because of their financial problems some people are avoiding them so they need to unload their tickets somewhere. You should expect to pay more for a more convenient flight. That is just the way it is done. Sorry
Posted by
Seattle, WA, USA
524 posts
I agree that you might be stuck with the tickets. However, last year we had to change our nonrefundable (bought through Orbitz) tickets from Seattle to Chicago and found that it was cheaper to cancel the trip and pay the cancellation fees and then rebook than it was to alter the original itinerary. Go figure. Worth looking into. Either way there are fees.
Posted by
OP
Baudette, MN, United States
163 posts
Thanks to everyone for the information. I guess we will stick with the tickets we've already bought. More than anything I'm just nervouse about flying with Alitalia.....but like Frank said, I guess you get what you pay for. Thanks again!