$100 Change Fee?!
 

Do my eyes not deceive me? Am I misreading this? Did anyone else notice this?

Effective yesterday, JetBlue more than doubled their change/cancel fee to $100. Ouch.

This brings them in line with most of the majors, except for United, which has upped their change fee to $150.

As I have previously stated in this very forum, IMHO, there are reasonable fees (seat upgrades, extra bags, entertainment, food--of which, I know, JetBlue only charges 2 of these, and only very recently) and unreasonable fees (change fees that eat up most or all of the cost of a ticket).

Allow me to state this unequivocally: a $100 change fee, on an airline with a $135 average one-way fare, is--to borrow the favorite word of NYC Mayor Bloomberg--unconscionable.

:td::td::td:

Bummer. I guess that explains why other carriers that tend to match the B6 lower fees have raised theirs to $100 as well.

As a slightly interesting aside, on that same page there is also a reference to the new marketing campaign:
I guess the "Jet" thing is for real.

"Reality"

The reality is that Jetblue is now, no different than any other airline anymore.

Yes, they used to be and that is how they grew into what they are today.

From what I have read on this board, they are going to laugh in future ads that (among other things) their TV's are broken so often. That tells you they don't care. They "Jetblue" management just does not care. remember that when you make your next reservation. The only problem is that management of the other airlines don't care either.

From JetBlue's biggest fan: :td::td:

While I am in favor of any positive revenue enhancers/generators, this is just one of those unnecessary moves that will probably have a worse effect. With a cheaper change fee, like $40, most people probably booked with the cheap change fee in mind, saying "if I need to change my travel plans, at least it won't cost me an arm and leg." This new $100 fee will encourage people to hold off on booking, as well as convince people to travel on their original itinerary if they don't really need the change, thus gaining NO revenue at all for the company. $40 in jetBlue's pocket is better than $0. $40 times the higher amount of people who change tickets = a nice amount. $100 times many fewer people = not such a great amount. At least leave the $40 change fee online.

Very poor decision-making here.

Not only do I agree 100% remember, this is really an increase of 400%. It used to be $25, back when Jetblue was a very friendly airline.

The snarky remarks about broken TVs were in a sarcastic blog post ABOUT the ads, NOT in the ads themselves.

While I agree 100% with this analysis, remember that they have data and details that we do not. They know how many people pay a change fee and have some expectation of how many will now not pay based on the increased fee. I do not think that it will be at all revenue negative for the airline, though on an individual basis it will be negative for each passenger who has to make a change.

Maybe their models will prove to be wrong, but I have no reason to think that we know more about the industry or their revenue modeling than they do.

Also, to come to JetBlue's defense (despite my earlier remarks about the unconscionability of the $100 change fee, which I still stand by), there ARE some major differences between JetBlue and other US airlines. Amongst them:

(1) Customer service phone calls handled by Utah homemakers who are (1a) empowered to solve problems and occasionally bend rules. And (1b) responsive email customer support who can often go even one step further to resolve grievances. [I have found that other airlines go out of their way to make rules confusing, or even not to disclose some obscure rules, and then enforce them without mercy].

(2) The customer bill of rights. Imperfect as it may be, I read on this board all the time about people getting credits for things they didn't even complain about. That is proactive customer service.

(3) A (usually) positive attitude that seems pervasive amongst the staff.

(4) Free TV

(5) Free snacks

(6) Free wi-fi at hub terminals

(7) Most legroom in coach, rivaling domestic first-class on some other airlines.

(8) Seat upgrade fees that actually buy you better seats (some airlines are now charging the same $10-$20, or more, simply for the privilege of picking seats near the front of coach, with no extra room or features).

Why should jetBlue charge a lower change fee than everyone else?

They are not in business to be friendly. They are in business to make money, and to get us from point A to point B.

Perhaps they could very delicately tiptoe into the realm of overbooking, so as to pad the flights a little bit in the event of cancellations, and thus earn a little more revenue this way, rather than through excessive change fees. I'm sure there's a way to overbook ever-so-slightly (like 1 extra passenger per flight) that could increase revenues in a way that could at least somewhat offset the need for such a huge increase in change fees.

This is simply not true. While air travel has become largely commoditized, many customers will still favor one carrier over another for 'fluffy' reasons like comfort, service, rewards programs, reasonable fees and policies, and, yes, friendliness. These often intangible things can be drivers for increased revenue and profitability, because customers will pay more, or at least choose you over an equally-priced competitor, if you can deliver slightly more than just an unpleasant trip from A to B.

So charging the same $100 fee as everyone else certainly falls under the "reasonable fees and policies" category, right?

This is really bad news for me and a very poor business decision. I have cancelled and rebooked countless times on jetBlue precisely because the fee was low. It just happened yesterday in fact. I had a same day roundtrip to Long Beach booked and now I need to go to Kenya. I cancelled the other ticket and booked myself to JFK giving B6 over $550 in revenue due to the $40 change fee and the change of destination.

Having a low change fee enables me to book tickets in advance and change my plans later if necessary. Having no flexibility really discourages me from booking tickets at all unless I know for sure I will going.

Coming from a fan of B6---it will seriously get me switching more of my business to Virgin America if they don't match as well.

No, it does not, as I clearly stated in the very first post of this thread:

Allow me to state this unequivocally: a $100 change fee, on an airline with a $135 average one-way fare, is--to borrow the favorite word of NYC Mayor Bloomberg--unconscionable.

Nor was I arguing that JetBlue shines in all of those 'fluffy' categories. I was merely disagreeing with your contention that an airline's sole purpose is to get you from Point A to Point B, when, in fact, airlines are in the business of differentiating their product from one another, with things like loyalty programs (a category where JetBlue doesn't really rise to the top) and 'friendliness' (a category where JetBlue does seem to score well).