Originally Posted by
Xero
I find it unethical for AA to charge fees where they cannot be avoided. For example, this $20 fee for booking over the phone simply because the website doesn't allow it. Advertising a price and bringing unavoidable fees is something Ryanair does. AA should have the courtesy to its customers to waive the $20 fee in cases where a booking cannot be done online.
I fail to see even the slightest ethics concern here. Did God or some higher authority wave its wand and give mankind the right to complete business transactions cheaply and conveniently online?
The opposite of unethical, I find it fair to pass expenses onward to customers who incur them. If it takes AA additional man-hours to make your reservation over the phone, I would rather you pay the $20 (it's your child, after all) than the average ticket price goes up by even 1 cent.
I don't have any desire for AA to add extra (likely unprofitable) features to their website so that you can avoid fees and I can pay for the development cost through surreptitious fare increases. In fact, I think it is easier to argue that you are unethical when you demand that others pay for services that you use and they do not.
ETA: It looks like
hotdogs has provided a solution, rendering this argument moot! If you're clever enough to do most of the work yourself, AA will make a minor change for free.