The thing that is pissing me off is that she is fully willing to pay the price difference, but they are calling the tickets non-refundable.
Are they? What fare rule booking class were they purchased under?
ie:
<TABLE width="100%" border=1><TBODY><TR><TD>[FONT=Arial,Helvetica]Booking Code[/FONT]</TD><TD>[FONT=Arial,Helvetica]What is the
booking class required for booking this fare? Using booking classes, the airlines control how many seats on each flight are available for each fare.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial,Helvetica]e.g. F,P,J,C,Y,B,M,Q,V,H,L[/FONT]
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
[FONT=Arial,Helvetica]c) the class of service required for booking[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial,Helvetica]To understand this very important point we must introduce the concept of inventory control. In order to be profitable, the airline is not likely to allow all seats on the aircraft to be available at special fare rates, even if every passenger could meet the necessary restrictions. In other words, the airline allocates only a certain number of seats at each fare level for each flight. The number of seats allocated at each fare level depends on many factors, such as the route involved, the time of year, the usual business/leisure passenger breakdown on that route, the time of day, etc. Airlines have inventory control departments to determine how many seats are allocated at each fare on each flight. For example, in the case of the college student, if his flight of choice was already heavily booked, all of the special fares may be sold out at the time he makes a reservation, although the flight itself may still have some seats available at the full coach fare. The student would then have to choose a different flight or elect to pay the full fare (or some fare in between).[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial,Helvetica]Different classes...same economy seats![/FONT]
[FONT=Arial,Helvetica]In airline reservation computer systems, the allocation of seats at different fare categories is accomplished through the use of "class of service" codes. Do not confuse these codes with the actual class of service (e.g. First Class, Business Class, Coach). While First Class and Business Class do have their own class of service codes, many different class of service codes are used for the Coach cabin, even though all of the passengers sit in the same place. For example, the business traveler and the college student may sit next to each other in the Coach cabin, even though their reservations were made with different class of service codes.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial,Helvetica]Class Examples[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial,Helvetica]Generally speaking First Class is coded as F or P, Business Class as C or J, and Full- Fare Coach as Y. Most special fares (referred to as subclasses, since they are subclasses of the Coach class) are coded using other letters, such as M, B, H, K, Q, L, V, etc. Each airline generally has a hierarchical structure for the subclass codes - e.g. on one airline the order is generally MBHVQL, where M is usually close to a full Y fare and L is usually a deeply discounted fare. The hierarchical structure varies however from airline to airline (e.g. on another airline M may be heavily discounted).[/FONT] [FONT=Arial,Helvetica]When checking whether a particular flight is available, what you really want to know is what classes are available? If you are looking for a low fare requiring booking in Q class, then you must find a flight for which Q class is available. If Q class is sold out on that flight, then you will have to pay a higher fare to take that flight, or choose another flight.[/FONT]
Edit: Check out this site for more info http://www.travelterminal.com/fareruleintro.shtml#help