You probably have all heard about the new "deal" that airlines are giving to those who have already purchased tickets to Japan. You know... "no change fees" for changing your flights, even on non-refundable or non-changeable tickets... right!

Well being of a cynical nature, I doubted this and looked for the catch.

I called the airlines and indicated I have a flight for next week (which I do), to Japan, and wanted to change it by 2 weeks. She said there would be no change fee, BUT I would have to pay the fare differential. The new fare is $1400. My ticket cost $800. I had to come up with $600 per ticket. I have 4 booked seats meaning it would cost me $2400 to change our plans.

So, I allowed this might just be with this single flight. Before the disaster, it was very easy to find flights on Delta to Japan (Osaka) for under $1000. Easy.

But I found this not to be the case. EVERY flight between now and June, to Osaka was coming in at a minimum of $1400, with many if not most being higher. Not a single discount ticket to be had.

The airlines know that there will be a flood of people having to travel to Japan. There is no need to offer discounts PLUS, they upped the price of their base tickets.

So, before you take the airline up on their "FREE" change policy, realize they are going to charge you up the gazoo on fare differentials.

Capitalism at it's finest. To heck with a disaster. Disaster == revenue to Airlines.