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Modifying Flight for Cheaper Fare-Early Bird?

beachgirl4
Explorer C

I see that the flights I purchased with RR points for next Wednesday and Sunday are about 1000 points cheaper than when I got them.  I would like to get those extra points back, but I don't want to lose my early bird status.  Will doing this cause me to lose the early bird number that I reserved when I purchased my flights?

3 REPLIES 3

Re: Modifying Flight for Cheaper Fare-Early Bird?

TheMiddleSeat
Aviator A

If you use the change option to rebook the flights (don't cancel and rebook) you will be get the points refund and retain EBCI, but your EBCI position will be as if you just made the reservation so it may not be quite as good a boarding position number as the one associated with your original reservation. You'll have to decide if the points refund is worth the adjusted boarding position. 

Re: Modifying Flight for Cheaper Fare-Early Bird?

chgoflyer
Aviator A

@TheMiddleSeat wrote:

If you use the change option to rebook the flights (don't cancel and rebook) you will be get the points refund and retain EBCI, but your EBCI position will be as if you just made the reservation so it may not be quite as good a boarding position number as the one associated with your original reservation. You'll have to decide if the points refund is worth the adjusted boarding position. 


Actually, my understanding is that the time stamp of an EBCI purchase only changes if you change to a different flight. Have you seen evidence otherwise?

Re: Modifying Flight for Cheaper Fare-Early Bird?

TheMiddleSeat
Aviator A

I do not have any personal experience with it so you may be correct. I was just going off what I've seen reported elsewhere.  Either way, a change will at least retain EBCI vs canceling and rebooking.