Originally Posted by
nologic
No, I see it as different. A person changing from flight A to flight B is still taking a flight. The airline should be indifferent as to what flight the pax is on, as long as it has award space available (which is already highly capacity controlled).
In the AA example of a cancelled booking, the pax has taken inventory away for the period of time of his/her booking, and not replaced it w anything else. So, that pax was a total drain during that period vs a net equal, and there should be a disincentive to hold and block seats and just cancel them at whimsy.
AA would charge the $150 fee if origin or destnation changes and in that case it is still just an award flight being held and changed. The passenger is still taking a flight albeit $150 poorer
Swings and roundabouts; some schemes are better for some things but not for others
In this case for a fairly small fee of $55 you can make the desired change ; if you had been using , say, US Miles, you would have been charged $150 ( if before departure of 1st flight in trip ) or just told sorry it cannot be done at all otherwise
If $55 change fees are an issue in your journey plannings, then really the BA scheme may just not be the best choice