Best airline to fly with for date changes?

[flight]

I'm planning a long trip to Europe, arriving in London or Paris. I'm wanting to fly with an airline that lets you change the dates for reasonable fees. (Taking into consideration the actual date change fee + the difference in fare charge). I wouldn't be changing my date into peak season, but am concerned that the difference in fare charge could be quite large with some airlines, since I'd be changing last minute (around a week or two before the new flight).

Has anybody had any good/bad experiences with certain airlines, or can recommend one?

Thanks!

 

[medhead]

I'm really not sure you can avoid the fare difference with any airline, unless you buy a more expensive airfare to start. Basically, if the fare you have is sold out then you'll need to pay more.

You can really only avoid change fees and the obvious way to do that is to buy a more flexible fare. So really you probably need to decide how much you're prepared to spend now to mitigate the risk of paying more later.

Assuming you're looking at economy fares.

 

[flight]

Thanks for your reply, medhead!
Yes I'm looking at economy fares.
I wouldn't need to fly back on a certain date, just in a certain timeframe (of maybe a week or so). I'm not looking to avoid the fare difference. I know that I'll need to pay if I choose to change my dates. I'm just looking for an airline that is likely to have a reasonable change fee (no more than $100-$200) given my flexibility with exactly which date my new return flight would be on.
Hopefully that made sense. It felt very convoluted when I was writing it.

 

[Mattg]

Most airlines charge for date changes by the sector, so if you only change the inbound leg you obviously won't pay as much as you would to change both legs. I would say that most premium (I.e. not low-cost carriers such as Tiger, Scoot, Jetstar) airlines would have similar policies in regard to date changes so just book with whichever airline you want, but check the fare conditions before doing so. As medhead has said, if you buy a flexible fare it will be easier to make changes.

 

[ftm]

SQ have pretty reasonable change fees. 'Legacy' airlines will charge a single change fee regardless of the number of sectors changed. I don't work regularly with low cost airline fares, so the advice above re charging per sector may be correct for them.

The thing you can never predict is the fare difference component. If the fare class you originally purchased isn't available on the date you want to change to, then you'll need to pay the difference.

 

[flight]

Okay. It seems like there probably isn't too much difference between airlines.

Singapore Airlines looks like a good one to go with.

Thank you all for you help!

 

[MEL_Traveller]

just make sure with the change fee that the fare isn't a lot higher for a short stay vs long stay. Some airlines have cheap fares for say a 3 month stay, but they can be a lot more for a 1 year ticket. In addition to the change fee you might be up for a big difference in fare. Easy to check with SQ - just price a short term and long term fare and see if there is any difference.

 

[Isochronous]

CX are great - free changes unless you have to pay to go into a higher booking class. You can also deal with their Australian sales office via e-mail which makes things very easy.