While a given carrier might have an official policy to not accept doctors notes to waive change fees, its agents at airports/city ticket offices may still do this on a case by case basis. The official policy by now means represents the final say as to how you will be treated, or what service adjustments will be made.


Shareholder, while you are correct from a contractual standpoint about the carrier having no obligation to waive change fees, I think pax would expect this to be done as a customer service gesture. Such gestures do generate good will towards an airline, and this could result in future business given to that particular airline, as opposed to one that puts the rule book (and the contract of carriage) ahead of customer service. I regard such unofficial waivers of the rules to be an extremely valuable benefit, and if one airline were to do it a lot more than the others, I would strongly consider shifting business to the airline that was generous in this way with its customers.