Originally Posted by
mygarbagemail
Well I can tell you that there have been times when i book a ticket, the change fee costs close to as much as (or more than) the ticket itself, so without knowing the dollar amounts involved, one cannot make any judgments as to whether the fee is unreasonable:
if the fare was $1500 and you lose $750 that might be unreasonable
if the fare was $100 and you lose $50 that might be reasonable
if the fare was $40 and you lose $40 that might be reasonable
^
The fare was just over $1000, and I was told I'd be losing around $500. Depending on how one reads their rules (i.e., whether tax is refunded), the loss could be from $350 to $700.
And yeah, I didn't initially expect this to be free. A penalty of $100, maybe even $200, would have struck me as the price of doing business. But $500's ludicrous. I had politely requested a supervisor so I could discuss this, but was unable to reach one. I sent an email to their customer service desk, as the airline requested, but received no answer. So Flyingbrick, you hit the nail on the head about asking for help. I was informed that the American operation is "reservations only" and that to reach customer service, I'd have to make an international call to the airline's home country. Hmm, I wonder if this is also what they'll tell MasterCard?
The clause is not in the T&C of my card, but it's in the T&C of the standard MasterCard terms for merchants. At least in theory, this should apply to any MasterCard.