When things go wrong on day of travel....
This is a bonus little storytime and words of caution contained within a trip report series. Bet you didn't expect that, did you? Well, neither did I...
Posts from this Trip Report:
- Introduction: A circle tour around Asia
- Swiss Air A330-300 Business Class Review (BOS-ZRH)
- Swiss Air A350-900 Business Suites Review (ZRH-ICN)
- When things go wrong on day of travel...
- ANA B787-900 Business Class Review (HND-DEL)
- TBA
My dumb mistake
I was supposed to fly the same ANA/Air India product and route the day prior (on May 21). Eagle-eyed readers may have caught the date update on the introduction post. Long story short, on May 21, the flight was out of Tokyo Haneda and I spent 2 hours travelling all the way to Tokyo Narita.
Now I wouldn't say I'm a newbie traveler - my "year in review" posts should confirm that. But going to the wrong airport was just such a bone-headed mistake. The ANA staff at NRT were so helpful and called HND staff for me to coordinate a change of flights to the next day. You should always expect to pay some sort of change fee for this change, but I ultimately wasn't charged one, which I'm super grateful for.
The core issue - codeshare itineraries
But here's where the word of caution comes in - if your ticket is issued by a different carrier than the one being flown, they technically "own" the ticket. Things get even more complicated when 3+ carriers are involved in ticketing (which was the case for me). The ticket was issued by Air Canada, travelling first on ANA, connecting to Air India. This is definitely a pretty challenging task, so you'll need to seek out someone with experience to accomplish this.
Cue to me connecting onto NRT's wifi, phoning the Aeroplan desk using Google Voice VOIP, and waiting on hold for 2.5 hours to have them reissue the ticket (all the while praying that the internet didn't cut out even for just one second). Luckily, the agent knew exactly what I was trying do. She initially proposed an alternate leaving that same day, but would require a full day layover in Bangkok instead. I opted to keep course and stay an extra day in Tokyo. Within about 5 minutes, she pushed out the Air India leg one day, and added back the old ANA flight that was closed out due to my no-show.
This set the ANA agents up perfectly, with the old flight also now back on the list. I could tell the person working over the phone at HND was also very knowledgeable. By the time the NRT staff called back, they had everything ready to go and placed me on the next day's flight in about 5 minutes.
This isn't my first time dealing with complex tickets
Over the years, I've gotten pretty good at dealing with putting together some pretty complicated itineraries. Sometimes it requires multiple phone calls and many hours on hold, but I never give up until it all comes together.
In 2025, I was putting together a complex routing for my dad flying JAL and AA Business from CTS-LAS through HND and LAX booked through AA. The itinerary would need 3 legs: CTS-HND-LAX-LAS. I spent many hours pricing different combinations and could only get 2 of the 3 legs to price correctly. So after booking HND-LAX-LAS, I called AA reservations to add on CTS-HND as an additional leg with no extra charge. But the ticket kept getting dropped and errored before being processed.
I tried multiple different routings and by the third day, the phone agent remembered me by name. She spent literally 40 minutes trying to diagnose why the tickets kept getting rejected. We tried all sorts of fixes, even adding the segments in Economy. To this day, Beth, you have been the best agent I've ever worked with. You tried so hard to get it through - without your 20+ years of experience, I might have just given up on this ticket.
So what should you do?
So maybe your airline cancelled your flight, or perhaps a weather-related reroute caused a ticket glitch, or maybe you just got to the airport late. Here are a few tips to keep in mind:
- If you voluntarily upgrade or change your flights in the middle of a trip, you will need to get the completed segment(s) removed and the ticket reissued.
- If your flight is delayed or cancelled, take note of the reason: whether it be weather, maintenance, staffing, etc.
- If you miss a connecting flight, the previous operating airline is responsible for rebooking you.
- Some airlines have interline agreements outside of typical alliances. You may ask to be rebooked on any airline that gets to your destination quicker if an agreement exists.
- If there's a travel waiver due to expected weather or unrest and you are still 24+ hours away from travel, you should try rebooking with the issuing airline directly first. If you are within 24 hours, you should try working with the operating airline first.
- If your ticket has multiple different airlines, be prepared to deal with whoever issued the ticket. You should still try to deal with the operating airline(s), but they may run into trouble.
At then end of the day, pushing my trip wasn't THAT big of a deal. I wasn't rushing home for work or anything and even managed to tick off another thing on my bucket list: going to an NPB game!
