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Visa Notification, and pleasant airline ticket story

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March 25 late afternoon we both received an e-mail from the Portuguese consulate informing us that our visa application was approved and authorized.  Tomorrow morning I will take the train in to the city and hand-deliver our passports to the VFS office!  Typically it takes 4 working days to put the visa sticker in the passport.  We have learned to not count on the timing -- don't hold your breath.  After all, we applied for the visa last December 4th, and other later applicants already got their visas!  And I had purchased a cheaper round-trip ticket, expecting to return to Porto on the 24th of March.  

When the visa notification still had not arrived by last Friday, I worried about changing the ticket: what date would I change it to?  We cannot be sure when the notification will arrive, and when we will get our passports back.  Fortunately, they can suspend the itinerary for successive five-day periods.  What a relief!  Now we truly will not schedule our flight back until we have the passports + visa sticker in hand.

Details: I purchased our roundtrip ticket on KLM, with a change-fee.  When I called FlyingBlue customer service they surprised me by offering to cancel the return schedule and hold the ticket open for 5 calendar days.  After that time they will simply cancel the ticket.  However, if I call before the 5-day period I can re-schedule the flight and then pay whatever extra fees the computer shows (I presume the change-fee plus the current charge for that flight over my credit for the ticket).  Further, if I call before the 5-day period, I can simply ask them to reset the 5-day clock again, multiple times until I am ready to schedule the flight.  Final deadline is 1 year after ticket purchase.  

However, I did not ask about fees for seat-assignment and checked-baggage, some of which I already paid separately from the original ticket purchase.  Will they re-instate those as well?  

I assume other airlines would have similar policies -- at least the major airlines. But, as always, Your Mileage May Vary. Any similar stories?




 

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