ASA bookings

[tom11111]

Hello all,

Would love to tap the wealth of knowledge on the board if possible.
Pretty much my situation is such:

Need to visit a friend overseas over the extended xmas period while work is closed down.
Ideally i'd like to spend xmas with the family and fly out immediately after.
I am looking to book a J class seat on ASA.
The available seats on or after xmas are all about 3x more expensive in points than one 3 days before xmas. (~100k vs ~330k)

Seeing as its a J seat, would it be possible for me to book the cheaper ticket and then once booked call up and change the flight to the xmas day one (probably paying off a small fee?)?
My understanding is that J class fares are fully transferable? Please advise if i am wrong!

TIA

Tom

 

[opusman]

Welcome to AFF, tom11111!

Unfortunately no you can't do this. JASAs are fully refundable, but to change flights there must be availability in the same fare bucket. In the case of the lowest-priced JASAs, this is U class. You would be doing pretty well to get a U class seat around Christmas time, unfortunately.

 

[straitman]

Welcome to AFF, tom11111!

Unfortunately no you can't do this. JASAs are fully refundable, but to change flights there must be availability in the same fare bucket. In the case of the lowest-priced JASAs, this is U class. You would be doing pretty well to get a U class seat around Christmas time, unfortunately.

Not always entirely correct. (re no availability)

As most people over the holiday period are tourists/holiday makers there can be more J class availability. This is the time of year that many status people get Op Ups (if ever) as business is not flying as much.

Tom11111,

If you can give an idea of dates and routes then someone can look at current availability for you.

 

[tom11111]

Hi Bill,

Route is Melbourne (MEL) to Shanghai (PVG) return.
The "U bucket" flight is on the 21st dec priced at a touch over 100k points MEL to PVG and I can get PVG to MEL on the 4th Jan for 96k points. All other options are in excess of 350k each way
Ideally I'd like to fly out Christmas evening or Boxing day (Mother gets quite upset if any of the family miss Christmas).

May just end up lifting a cash economy ticket if i have to nuke that many points on J!

If you come up with a solution I'd love to hear it though!

thanks

Tom

 

[tom11111]

Well the Gods shined on me in the end a U bucket popped up on boxing day! How lucky I am
All booked for 190k points return! Result!

 

[straitman]

Well the Gods shined on me in the end a U bucket popped up on boxing day! How lucky I am
All booked for 190k points return! Result!

A great outcome.