I'm sorry -- I still don't get what people are bit*hing about. They sell fares with no change fees, and sometimes they have fares with lower (or higher) change fees. It's more or less all disclosed up front, and the consumer can decide what s/he wants to purchase.

Would you rather just have them charge $200 more for the ticket and let you make one change for free? I don't see you complaining about the fares they charge (ok, to be fair, there's another thread on that... ). They charge what the market can bear -- in terms of both fares and change fees. It's pretty much a basic tenets of economics, and it doesn't matter whether or not you invest in the business. It's about being realistic. Nobody's cheering for change fees. It's just that the enlightened ones recognize the reality of the situation. All airlines do it, and usually the change fees are competitive. When JetBlue came to the NY-FL marketplace, change fees on many of CO's fares dropped from $100 to $30. And I think it's been mentioned, but you should definitely note that there exist fares on foreign carriers that are absolutely non-changeable. Not even for a fee. I don't think I've ever seen one of those from a U.S. airline. So to argue that a $200 change fee is consumer-unfriendly is just silly.
Do you care to share with us why you don't think it's so clear cut? Why don't they just lower ALL their fares by $50 or whatever?