Rules regarding the changing my return flight date on Belavia (Frankfurt -> Minsk -> Frankfurt)

Question

I want to change the date of my flight back to Frankfurt from Minsk on Belavia. On their website it says:

Changes in the date, flight number and route before departure: Allowed for 30 EUR. Differences can be paid up to a higher fare or brand level.

Changes in the date, flight number and route after departure: Allowed from 100 EUR. Differences can be paid up to a higher fare or brand level.

I'm having some trouble with the language here. By departure, is it referring to my original flight from Frankfurt to Minsk? Or does it mean, for example if my return flight is on 20.01.2021, that if I change my flight date to 15.01.2021 then it's 30€ + difference in fares, and if I change the date to 30.01.2021 then it's 100€ + difference in fares?

Kind of confused here. I tried contacting them, but I couldn't get through to an English speaking agent.

Answer 1

The wording of those rules is a little confusing, but most commonly terminology like that would refer to the departure of the first flight on your itinerary. For example, if you have a return ticket with the outward flight on January 10th, and the return flight on January 20th, then any changes made to either flight before January 10th would be considered "before departure". Any changes made to the return flight after January 10th would be "after departure".

There is a second meaning of "after departure" which refers to the departure of the flight you are booked on. You most commonly see this used in phrases like "Ticket has no value after departure" which refers to the fact that if you don't use your ticket on the flight you're booked on then the value of the ticket is lost. It is possible, but very unlikely, that this is what these rules refer to.

What is almost certainly not being referred to is the date of the new flight. The new flight date will potentially have an impact on the price based on the fare class difference, but not the change fee.

Answer 2

So I ended up going to the Belavia Ticket Office and to my surprise, they only charged 30€ instead of the 100€ I was expecting, for the flight change. This was because my new departure date was later than my original departure date.

Therefore, for anyone else in a similar situation, the price for changing your flight is 30€ (if the new departure date is after your original one) and 100€ (if the new departure date is before your original one).