Originally Posted by
andrewpartyman
Without being political I just think change fees are ridiculous. They are entirely disproportionate to the ticket cost. As a PM on Delta and someone with over 1,000,000 lifetime miles on them, it would be nice if Delta didn't have to punish me so hard for changing a ticket. Not only do I have to pay the change fee, but the absurd difference in fare (which I really don't mind, I think the later part is fair and logical--what does it cost them to switch my ticket besides 1 minute on the phone with a usually disgruntled agent?). Wouldn't it be a nice benefit if Delta gave their elite fliers 3 free changes fee waivers/year? Frequent fliers have stuff happen, and it would be nice to recognize that.
OK. Sure. Change fee waiver(s) would be a very nice Medallion benefit. But the point of the "ridiculously high" change fees is to emphasize that you are not supposed to be changing these tickets. They are supposed to be non-changeable, non-refundable and the fact that we can change them for a fee is a concession to people who would gripe that they had purchased a non-refundable, non-changeable ticket and lost all that they had paid because of a change in plans.
To make a profit, the airlines have to sell a certain percentage of higher priced tickets. If it became less punitive to change the lowest priced tickets, then more of them would be sold and fewer of the higher priced tickets. That would force the airlines to raise the prices of the cheapest tickets to stay profitable.
You may view the fees as "gouging" the customers, but surely you cannot argue that the airlines are making obscene profits as a result of price gouging...most are just getting by.