I am currently a study abroad student wrapping up my semester in Kyoto, Japan. Before I booked my flights on Air Canada as a round trip ticket through vayama.com. When I bought my ticket, I had not done a great deal of planning so I set a late return date (August 27th) expecting that I could use the entire month to travel or pay a small fee to have this changed. A few weeks ago I determined that I could not really afford to travel during the month of August, so I should change my return flight to Raleigh, NC to the end of July. Because I am phone-less I had my parents contact Air Canada on my behalf. They were told that because the ticket was booked through Vayama, a discount ticket service, they are not able to process an exchange. My parents then contacted vayama and have encountered terribly unhelpful customer service. When my reach out to vayama and explain that they would like change my return flight they are told to expect and email with a list of flights that fit my availability. After waiting for a few hours we receive this email:
"You recently contacted Vayama requesting to make a change to your existing airline reservation. We regret that we are unable to change your ticket. That is because the tickets you have are based on special rates that have less availability due to the high demand for these discounted prices.
If you travel date is flexible, please kindly provide new date option."
This has happened multiple times and not once has vayama offered us an exchange. So, now I am stuck with a ticket that I cannot make use of until the end of August. To make matters worse, my apartment lease expires at the end of July. I am frustrated and at a loss for what to do next. Does anyone have any experience in dealing with vayama? Advice of any kind would be greatly appreciated!
tl;dr: stuck in Japan for a month and unable to change my return flight because of a budget ticket seller. Need help!