• Johannesburg to Miami one way via Atlanta on Delta – the client need to do a reroute ie fly to Houston – reroute was permitted however as there was no availability to book JNB-ATL-Houston , there was however availability if I booked Atlanta Houston – so what I needed was for the married segments to be broken so I could use JHB to Atlanta and the new portion to Houston – ie collect the reissue fee and keep the passenger on Delta – well nope the could not assist – only option – cancel ticket and sell on a carrier that could assist for that date and routing.
• Kulula Lumpur return in Business class – client needed to fly a day earlier and the only option was to reroute via Singapore – keep the validating carrier as Air Malaysia and reissue the ticket with the change fee. This is a R40 000 ticket. Response from Air Malaysia – No – no reroute prior to departure! No problem hand ticket in for a refund and sell the ticket on Singapore airways. So now you get R1000 cancellation fee instead of a R40 000 booking.

These are just two recent examples I have encountered which leads me to raise the question is your own inflexibility costing you money?

here is one of the most restrictive tickets that you can get:

CANCELLATIONS

ANY TIME
TICKET IS NON-REFUNDABLE.

CHANGES

ANY TIME
CHANGES NOT PERMITTED IN CASE OF REISSUE/REVALIDATION.

Here is a less restrictive ticket:

ORIGINATING SOUTH AFRICA -
CANCELLATIONS

BEFORE DEPARTURE
CHARGE 50 PERCENT.
NOTE -
CHARGE 50 PERCENT OF THE FARE PAID.

AFTER DEPARTURE
TICKET IS NON-REFUNDABLE.

CHANGES

ANY TIME
CHANGES PERMITTED.
NOTE -
REBOOKING PERMITTED – CHARGE ZAR 300.00

Here is an example of a non restrictive ticket:

CANCELLATIONS

ANY TIME
CANCELLATIONS PERMITTED.
NOTE -
FULL REFUND LESS ADMINISTRATION FEE.

CHANGES

ANY TIME
CHANGES PERMITTED.

These are some examples of the restrictions you can expect to see on the ticket. Just for reference these examples are taken from SAA on the JHB ACC route. The fare difference between the most restrictive and the less restrictive is ZAR8320. Be aware of what you are purchasing and generally you are getting what you pay for. Here is a TIP. If you need a changeable ticket advise this to your agent and ask for the rules of the ticket prior to making payment and issuing the ticket because if the ticket is non refundable changes etc CANNOT be done at a later stage.