[SM1]

Thank you for your advice.

As it turned out the manager of the Korean Air office in Kunming apparently (we don't know the inner workings) prevailed on the KA central office to put my husband on a flight leaving in two days for a total additional charge of $451.00. The additional charge includes a $100.00 "administrative charge for changing the status od the ticket from Q class to M class, " and a $351.00 penalty. Greatly relieved because of the urgency, we accepted the offer. The other options would have been to book a flight on another airline as you suggested and lose the $ value of the KA ticket, or accede to KA's offer to upgrade my ticket for between $2000.00 to $5000.00. Both of these options were more costly than the $451.00 option.

Perhaps we should be grateful for the result, but it was achieved only after hours of hammering on the local office; after KA first falsely insisted the only
option was to pay an additional $2000.00 to $5000.00; after the KA local office failed to read copies of the complaint on this forum which we emailed to them; after insisting they had put my husband on a waiting list which was the best they could do, this after the message center texted us with the new
reservation; after agreeing that there was no practical change between Q class and M class service, just a change in label; in short after quite an unnecessary
ordeal whose tormented flavor is impossible to capture in print. So yes my husband is happy and relieved to see his dying sister, but no, he would not
characterize KA as benevolent. Far from it.

I could take issue with your opinion that KA acted within their rights, but that
now seems pointless.

Again, thank you for your comments.