Location: Since the BoSox and ChiSox won it, now it is the Cubs turn to take the Series. Go Cubs Go!
Posts: 2,750
This is a dumb move on UA's part that is very likely to cause its customers to look at flying other airlines. In the name of revenue enhancement, they may loose lots of revenue. A 50 percent rise in the change fee rate is out of line. If UA wanted to increase this, it could have tried a gradual increase to $125.
Location: Since the BoSox and ChiSox won it, now it is the Cubs turn to take the Series. Go Cubs Go!
Posts: 2,750
Quote:
Originally Posted by cepheid
The $150 fee is for domestic changes. UA's int'l change fee has been $200 for some time.
The $150 fee can be more than the cost of a domestic ticket, so it may even be cheaper to buy a new ticket rather than pay the change fee and fare difference.
Programs: UA 2MM, DL 500k, SW CP, GP 1M, HH Gold, Miracle Fruit-su Club
Posts: 3,916
There's another way!
Quote:
Originally Posted by chitownflyer
The $150 fee can be more than the cost of a domestic ticket, so it may even be cheaper to buy a new ticket rather than pay the change fee and fare difference.
From our side of the table, it doesn't have to be either "benefit from no change fee" or "benefit from no same day change up-fare".
Since we are always churning our tickets anyway - or would if we could - how about buying three one-ways from Southwest: One outbound and two returns (or more if there's a multi-day swing). Choose the return, cancel the other(s), and put the other(s) into Southwest flight funds for use later. No harm, no foul, no $150 loss. With most Southwest one-ways averaging ~$100, the float they'd get would be trivial.
This is not battling surrogates. I am not a WN surrogate.
BTW, didn't the international change fee just go up to $250, cepheid?
Location: Since the BoSox and ChiSox won it, now it is the Cubs turn to take the Series. Go Cubs Go!
Posts: 2,750
Quote:
Originally Posted by Firewind
From our side of the table, it doesn't have to be either "benefit from no change fee" or "benefit from no same day change up-fare".
Choose the return, cancel the other(s), and put the other(s) into Southwest flight funds for use later. No harm, no foul, no $150 loss. With most Southwest one-ways averaging ~$100, the float they'd get would be trivial.
This is not battling surrogates. I am not a WN surrogate.
BTW, didn't the international change fee just go up to $250, cepheid?
I wonder if the geniuses behind the $150 change fee have even considered this.
Unfortunatly, the FEE BASED INCOME model that hooked the financial community 15 years ago, has now hit the airlines. Nickle and dimed for everything now. It really brought down the customer impression of the financial services companies, I think it might be the nail in the coffin for any last ditched plea from the airlines.
Unfortunatly, the FEE BASED INCOME model that hooked the financial community 15 years ago, has now hit the airlines. Nickle and dimed for everything now. It really brought down the customer impression of the financial services companies, I think it might be the nail in the coffin for any last ditched plea from the airlines.
FEE BASED INCOME may sound great, but what airline is making a profit? Southwest! The one without FEE BASED INCOME.
I (or more accurately, my clients) have already had to pay this fee twice this week. It's not a big deal until clients start telling me to fly other carriers.
I just got off the phone with the 1K line to get a travel credit since the fare from HNL-MEL went down by $45. I was told by the agent that since I ticketed it before March 20th, there is no charge to reissue the tkt but once I did so, there will be a $150 fee to reissue the tkt again. In other words, I could wait and if the fare dropped even more, then I could get it reissued for free. But if I did it today, I would be charged the $150 fee if I wanted to reticket due to another fare drop.
I figured it's better to take the bird in hand and got the ticket reissued.
I was under the impression that if the fare dropped, you could get the difference in a credit and there was no cost. After all, you could do it on-line and get a travel credit voucher sent to you in the mail.
I also was under the impression that if I wanted to change my flights, it was then the change fee kicked in, not when the fare dropped.
I told the agent that given this new policy, it made no sense (obviously) to reticket a fare unless it dropped more than $150 which doesn't happen all that often.
Is this the new policy or was the agent misinformed?
There's another way!
