Originally Posted by
lhrsfo
Offering an incentive to cancel is effectively the same thing as softening the refund / change policy. That will change the breakage rate and therefore the economics of the operation. Nearly all airlines I fly are fully non-changeable, non-refundable and I get that. UA has always been remarkably generous, with Same Day Changes permitted and, against a fee, the ability to capture residual value in a ticket. However, I see that they are moving away from such generosity and towards the more common model.
Looked at by itself, the OP's suggestion makes perfect sense but, looked at in the context of the buying decision, it's a much more debatable idea.
Is offering an incentive to cancel
really equatable to softening the refund/change policy?
They are technically equatable if you actually
do change your ticket or have a refundable ticket.
The incentive scheme would speak to people who wouldn't have let the airline know prior to the original flight date as A) it's cheaper to make a new booking; B) they don't have a refund policy.
Any idea how many people fall into this second category?