Originally Posted by
uanj
I recently changed an international ticket with the fare basis outside the U.S. Got a good agent who found the dates I needed and at a cost lower than the original fee + change fee.
She agreed with me that it is strange more and more foreign based fares have change fees or are not even changeable. Not just Asia but she is seeing some out of the UK. The opposite of where UA has said they want to go, at least for US based fares.
I believe AA was first mover in bringing back change fees on non-refundable (non-BE) fares that do not have US/Canada origins. They are actually now pretty ubiquitous on ex-UK/ex-EU fares with all three main alliances typically having EUR/GBP 150 change fees on cheaper non-refundable Main fares and EUR/GBP 250 fees on cheaper non-refundable Biz fares.
What does seem to be an outlier is UA having non-changeable fares ex-US/Canada. I don't believe AA/DL have adopted these on any ex-US/Canada routes and continues to have no change fees on Main or higher fares, and BE fares that are changeable for a fee. Although, it doesn't really seem that AA is matching DL/UA BE fares on ex-US/Canada international routes and seems to only offer Main and higher fares on most or all of them.