[jaydee]

Anyone have experience changing their return air tickets while in Russia?

Here's our dilemma: We purchased economy coach tickets on Lufthansa for our third trip to bring our son home. We asked what would happen if we needed to change the return, and were told we would pay only a $200 change fee, and no increase in fare. That was fine since that would still be much less than their adoption fare.

We are about to leave on the trip and have already found that we will need to depart Moscow two days later than originally planned. I called Lufthansa and found out that we can only make the change for $200 per ticket if we wait until we have made the outbound trip to Russia. And, they said that the flights are full on the day we now want to leave, on the day after that, and only 4 seats left the day after that. They said the only way I could make the return change now, before we leave, is to upgrade the tickets and pay the fare difference. They wouldn't tell me over the phone what that would be but said I had to go to the Lufthansa ticket desk at the nearest airport (two hours drive away), since we have paper tickets (we didn't want but they only issue paper tickets to fly into St. Petersburg). I can only guess that the fare increase will be enormous, since the $1,000 tickets I bought a week ago are now $2300 each.

My question is: How risky do you think it would be for us to wait until we complete our outbound trip and are in Russia, to try to make the return change? If Lufthansa is already full for the Dec. 16, 17, etc. flights, I am afraid that by next Monday the flights might be full until Christmas or later! We will be first-time parents of a 1-year-old, who is often sick, and want to get him home as quickly as possible. I don't know if standby is an option.

Any advice or similar experience appreciated. Thanks!

[pwnort64]

I had to change my return tickets for trip #2 last year. I was flying on Korean air. Fortunately, my coordinator took us to a local Korean Air ticketing office and they made all the changes without charging anything.

I do know that you need to fly the first segment of the ticket before you can change the return and only pay the change fee. If you change it before any of the travel, they view it as re-ticketing and you have to pay whatever the going rate is.

Perhaps you can talk to the person at the desk when you check in for your first flight and see if they can change it for you then. Or, if you have time when making your connection, you could talk to someone at the ticket counter then.

It is a risk about not being able to get seats, but I don't know how much the risk pf getting seats changes by waiting. They may be able to pull some strings. Most likely, there are seats, just not in the class you are flying. They may bump you up to get you on the flights you need. I think talking to someone in person is more likely to get you what you need than talking to that person on the other end of the phone (especially if you can flash a picture or two).

Good luck to you!

[mikeintexas]

Did you use a travel agent to get your tickets? We flew Lufthansa on trip 1 last year and went through Go To Russia travel. [I think it's okay to post that here w/out their web site.] We had to do some shuffling on dates as well and they were able to handle it. Might be worth a shot checking with them or even another travel agency. Just a thought...

[kimber413]

Hi Jaydee. We had to do this on Lufthansa when our court date got delayed. Yes, you have to wait until you are outbound to make the change for $200, but it's not that big of a deal. The Marriott Renaissance has a Lufthansa office right in the hotel, and they're very helpful. As soon as you get to Russia, go there and ask to change your tickets. The folks at the Renaissance were very helpful. At first they had no seats available for that day (it was Tuesday, and we were supposed to fly out Wednesday, but had to delay until Thursday), but the office told us to check back with them later in the day, and again on Wednesday morning. The airline released some seats on Wednesday for the Thursday flight, and we were able to get those. Otherwise, it would have just meant we had to stay an extra day or two in Moscow, which is no big deal when you compare it to the cost of trying to change the dates here before you leave.

If you have a really long layover in Frankfurt, you might even be able to check there about changing the dates. It's really nothing to worry about, though. Lufthansa is really good about helping you work things out.

[jaydee]

Thank you so much. Kim, as a matter of fact we will be staying at the Renaissance, although we won't be there until after a week in our region. But it's good to know that Lufthansa has an offfice right there that has been helpful.

MikeinTexas, unfortunately we did book the flights directly, without an agent. But, it looks as if this really is not so much of a worry that I thought it was. I will try the various options (seeing if we can make the change upon check in for first flight, after the first flight if we have time, etc.) I did really like how nice and professional Lufthansa was with our previous flight, so felt comfortable booking directly with them again.

This board is so very helpful! Thanks.

[waiting4babies]

Hi jaydee,

we had to end up changing our return tickets in Russia for our flight home and when I first called they said the flights were booked, but they held onto some dates for us. They did say that they would continue to see if the date we wanted for return would be available if any cancellations occurred. There were cancellations and we were able to come home on the day we wanted, so it is best to wait until you get to Russia to change your tickets. You may have to keep checking back for cancellations, but it is worth the chance of checking.

[mikeintexas]

Glad to hear this is going to work out! We would have very much preferred Lufthansa on trip 2, but it was sold out on the departure date. Have a good trip! -Mike

[hadams]

We had to change our return flights in Russia. We were flying Delta, and had to go to the Delta office in Moscow to get re-ticketed. We were able to call them from our region and work with their very competent English speaking staff.



We had to pay the change fee plus the bump to avail fare class, which was about 1700 a ticket. We had a hard time finding available seats, when we first called, there weren’t any, but plenty freed up before we actually had to fly home.



Be prepared to be creative with your itinerary. One of the days we called, there was a flight on the day we had to fly home from Paris to JFK, that still had seats in our fare class. We could have booked that at 200.00 a ticket, and then bought tickets from Aeroflot for Moscow to Paris for considerably less than the 1500 difference Delta wanted. By the time we figured that out, the seats were booked.

[mschweber]

We used Lufthansa and wanted to leave early and were told initially that all the flights were booked until the time of our tickets. However, we explained our situation and were told to call back the next day. At that time they came up with seats for us.

Ask them to check their code share partners and you may need to be creative and flexible as to your route and number of stops.

Eventhough we were in Russia we dealt with their main U.S. office (which is near Kennedy airport in NY) by phone and fax in making the changes.

[amygp]

We had to change our return flights on trip 1 AND on trip 2. On trip 1 we had to extend our trip due to not being able to meet with the MOE until later than we'd thought. And on trip 2 we booked an earlier flight home because our coordinator was concerned that our little guy was catching a cold and thought he needed to get home ASAP to see a doctor.

Both times we flew Lufthansa airlines, and we didn't have any trouble changing the tickets either time - we were charged the $200/ticket fee also. And it didn't seem to matter that we'd booked the tickets through a travel agent - the agent advised us to contact Lufthansa directly to make the changes, which Lufthansa seemed happy to do. The first trip, we made the change via phone from our hotel room in Krasnodar, and on trip 2 we dealt with Lufthansa's staff at the Renaissance, where we were staying.

Some flights out of Moscow do book up fairly quickly - but always ask if there are any seats on any of Lufthansa's codeshare airlines (Austrian, Lufthansa, United), as sometimes you can get back earlier/easier this way. Rest assured that the airlines are used to doing this, so try not to worry too much about the uncertainty of not knowing when you'll fly back. It always works out.

[cherylanderson3]

we had to change them on trip 2 via lufthansa...did it there, no problems at all. i would not worry about it.

cheryl