Date changing (STA) does it just change one flight?

Hey everyone,

I have booked a round the world ticket for thailand, australia, new zealand, fiji and los angeles, I spoke to STA travel and they have said it costs £30 for a date change, does this mean if for example if I wanted to extend New Zealand by a week, that the flight dates for everything else stays the same?

Like if I extend my New zealand flight, it will make my time in the next stop shorter?

thank you Darren.

What it would mean is if you change New Zealand by a week then that is £30. If you want the other dates to be delayed by a week then you would need to request that as you have only asked for New Zealand to be changed by a week. If you then request that the other places are changed by a week another £30 per place would be charged as you would be having multiple date changes. In some cases it might be a necessity anyway to make more than one date change like if you only allowed one week between New Zealand and Fiji and then you want to stay a week longer in New Zealand then that would mean your New Zealand date would be departing after you had already meant to have departed Fiji so that wouldn't be possible.

A RTW ticket is made by having seperate sectors on specific dates with you deciding which dates the flights are on, a travel agent is not a mind reader so does not know that you don't have to be back home on a certain date to go back to work or have to be in Fiji for a family wedding etc etc. A travel agent will only make the exact change you request so if you want more than one flight changed then you must request this. The moment a travel agent assumes something then the client will say well that is not what I want (sort of like what you said in a previous post you made). Like most people doing overland tours who are backpackers would much prefer to go Auckland to Christchurch or Christchurch to Auckland not depart and arrive in to the same city on a tour that is not a day trip.

[ Edit: Edited on 16-Nov-2009, at 14:32 by aharrold45 ]

Quoting Darrenm88

Like if I extend my New zealand flight, it will make my time in the next stop shorter?

Yep, unless you change the departure date from that next stop as well (which will cost you another 30 quid per change). You should probably also be aware that that date change fee might very well be different for some of the other stops! Also, if there is no availability in the airline class you are flying a week afterwards, and you really have to fly that day, then you'd also have to pay for an upgrade in class I'm pretty sure. That's typically not cheap.

One thing I should point out though is that most backpackers end up making at least one date change after they've left home. So I wouldn't be too worried about getting all the dates 100% in order just yet, as chances are you'll want to change them again at some stage anyway depending on people you meet, routes you choose etc.