I might also ellaborate that it can affect other aspects and costs of travel involved also as I have mentioned before regarding rental cars, hotels, and other travel reservations. They can be just like air tickets. The closer you wait until the date to make changes the more expensive they can be. If you have a car rental in Maui for $50 a day, finding out 3 or 4 weeks ahead of time that your flight is going to be 8 or 10 hours different might require you to have to rebook the car and now the price might be $100 a day because all thats left are big SUVs. Likewise for hotel rooms. If the change is so bad that you may need the room a night earlier or need to stay in the room a day later....you may be stuck with no room available at that hotel or one may be open but be more expensive room for that additional day. AS appears to be only looking at this matter through whats more convenient for themselves and not through it in the eyes of the customers convenience because they might have to answer a couple more phone calls. Or if ALL changes could be confirmed or declined online, they would drastically reduce the calls. Such as having had to call to get a reservation unlocked because a flight from MSP now leaves at 705pm instead of 645pm or another time because my OGG-SEA flight changed from like 1050am to 11am