Change of ticket charge
 

Does anyone understand why the airlines do not let a passenger tansfer a ticket that one cannot use to another person since there is a fee of $75. or $150. to rewrite the ticket.
Any comments on the fact that the airlines shoud pay the ticketholder if the carrier cancels a flight because it is not profitable after they have sold seats.

Thank you for your post, I had been wondering the same, regarding airlines being charged a fee for making changes to ones ticket/cancellations.

I've always seen it as extremely unfair in that the airlines can charge you a fee for changing making changes to a ticket, however, when the reverse it true, we as passengers cannot do the same.

Any comments or has anyone ever pursued this with a carrier?

Basically, I suspect the answer is "because they can." The way it is now, they lock you into a future ticket, as well as sell a new ticket to me. If you could transfer your ticket over to me, they lose that "lock." And I suspect that a lot of these unused tickets disappear unused due to the non-frequent flying of most of the population (we're not exactly representative on this board! http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif).

I was sitting in my T/A's office the other day and she was saying that the airlines only give her $25 dollars of the change fee when a client makes a change in their itinerary. But unless the original ticket was more than $500 she actually made more for the change than her original sale for the airline. But johna has hit it on the nose "because they can"

I will tell you the reason as to why they don't let you...You purchased transportation from point A to point B, you gave them your credit card and that is the final sale. Basically you signed a contract. If you do not fly that causes spoilage, and so on. Meaning they have a seat left open that you were supposed to fly in. So in order to make up the money they have the right to charge what ever they want just like any other business, right? I think so, its a fair trade. Look back remember when ticktes were either use it or lose it.....

Depends on your fare paid, and your flyer status. Buy a full "J" or "Y" ticket and they'll leave you alone pretty much. On any airline. Be a top tier flyer even on a cheap ticket and often the same story.

Combine the both and you are home free. Be on the cheapest ticket, and a non tier flyer and you are in big trouble.

I think the real issue here can be posed with the following question - why is an airline ticket not like a theater ticket? If you buy a theater ticket, it is not refundable, but it is transferable. You can give it (or sell it) to whomever you wish and the theater doesn't care who uses it. The reason airlines care is because of the incredible complexity of airline fares compared with simplicity of theater ticket prices. In a theater, seat 19D on July 12 costs X dollars, no matter who buys it or when they buy it. That is not the case with an airline ticket, as we all know.

An airline ticket purchased two weeks in advance is a lot cheaper than a ticket purchased one day in advance. If the airlines allowed tickets to be transferred, they would lose a lot of money. Last minute airline tickets are expensive because they are usually purchased by business people who often must make last minute decisions. They have no choice and must go, and the airlines take advantage of that fact and charge a lot more money because they know the business person must go and will pay the higher fare.

The advance purchase tickets are a lot cheaper because they are designed to attract the discretionary traveler and fill seats that would otherwise go empty. It is all part of the complex issue of yield management - attempting to fill as many seats as possible and generate the maximum revenue per trip.

If tickets were transferable, individuals (or brokers) could purchase them using advance purchase rules at low fares and resell them at a mark-up that would still be a lot less than the usual walk-up fare.

However, all of this may change this fall with the initiation of a new web site - hotwire.com. Please see recent posting In The News by mileageman (sorry, I couldn't get the URL correct).

[This message has been edited by JerryFF (edited 07-05-2000).]

[This message has been edited by JerryFF (edited 07-05-2000).]

[This message has been edited by JerryFF (edited 07-05-2000).]

The airlines are full of it. What started as a convenience charge has become a line item profit center. Before TW 800, it was common practice to sell unused return tickets (Florida newspapers had pages of them in season, in their classifieds), or give them to other family members. In the aftermath of that tragedy, in the ensuing "heightened security" checks that were instituted, they caught masses of folks using other people's tickets. Limiting this practice has been a bonanza, witness the continuing requirement to produce photo ID (trains, ships,and buses don't seem to need this). It's kind of like the way they deal with using cell phones in the air. The Wall Street Journal recently ran a front page article on that, saying that no one has ever been able to show that such transmissions interfere. Meantime they have no problem with you using the $3.00 per minute onboard mobile phone system.

Thanks for the answer. I think that you are absolutely correct. They certainly could allow me to transfer the ticket to someone using the same time frame of the original purchase of ALLOW ME TO HAVE ANYONE I SELECT USE THE VALUE OF THE UNUSED TICKET TOWARDS ANOTHER PURCHASE.

Airlines started checking for ID after the Unibomber made a threat at the LA airports for a 4 day period in the early 90's. When the threat was made, three things happened: 1)no mail was allowed into/out of these airports, 2)All air freight was diverted to other airports, and 3)all passengers were asked to produce valid ID. The airlines realized upwards of 15% of all passengers were flying with different names on their tickets. Some of the name differences were OK(John/William) but everyone else was forced to buy a new ticket. Over the four day period the airlines saw a big revenue jump from the LA Airports, so they decided to keep the ID rule in place.

Whenever an Airline asks for ID (on a domestic flight) for security reasons, I tell them you really mean for revenue enhancment---most of the time they just smile back.

I have flown domestic flights in many other countries (some with many more security concerns than the US)---not once have I been asked to produce any form of ID.

If airlines allowed tickets to be reissued under another passenger's name, I suspect that a ticket broker industry would grow similar to concerts or sporting events. Often the cheapest tickets ons sale are more than $75 cheaper than the "normal" price; a smart ticket broker could buy virtually all of the cheapest seats, leaving few or none for the general public.

vikinglova and JerryFF,

weak arguments. Not only does Southwest have -NO- change fees, but funds from a flight itinerary can be TRANSFERRED to another flyer, for no additional charge.

It's almost too easy - if you have the 6-digit reservation # you can use those funds for booking any other ticket for any flyer.

A flimsy excuse: I suppose they expected Ted Kaczynski or whatever his name is to present an ID that said "I made a threat against the airlines and need to get arrested" ???

SW may not have change fees, but try flying stand-by on a discounted ticket on SW ...

I wasn't trying to justify the policy - just explain it. I agree it is a huge ripoff.

The truism that possession is 99% of the law stands true here. Once the airline takes your money they don't want to give it back. If they want to charge you 200 bucks for a cancellation fee, there's not much you can do about it. To bring this topic one step further, why do airlines only give you one year to redeem your ticket, or you are completely out of luck? In this situation, they provided nothing to you and keep everything!

Actually, a number of airlines have changed the one year limit on exchanging nonrefundable tickets. UA and AA now have no time limit, DL and US have a 2 year limit.

You can still let friends fly on the ticket; just check in at the airport and then hand them the ticket. Assuming the party to whom you're giving the ticket is of the same sex they'll have NO problem on the return flight providing you give him/her a valid photo ID; the agents NEVER look at the pictures, they only marginally match the name up with the ticket. I emphasize that this is not illegal (at least on the outbound portion) but does violate all FF program rules so at worst you'd get bounced.

Or, if you're not sure you're going to be able to use a ticket just buy on-line with an expired credit card -- as a top tier flyer they invariably will force the fare later when I call the day prior to departure and play dumb "what happened to my electronic ticket?" Sleazy yes, but so are the airlines...

While this is not a consolation, United at least is making an effort. I purchased an online ticket on the UAL website today for my sister. After purchasing the ticket, I realized that I had her going out the wrong day of the week. I wasn't too terribly concerned about the $75.00 change fee, as this was a work related business trip.

After making the changes, the reservationist never asked for a credit card number for the change fee, which I thought was odd, so I asked about it - I was trying to be honest. She indicated that about a year ago, they did away with the $75.00 change fee for any changes made to a ticket within 24 hours of purchase. While most of us may make changes later on during a trip, it was nice this change benefited me, and others who were able to catch a mistake, or make changes within the timeframes imposed.

Most travel agents can void a nonrefundable ticket within the same calendar week in which it was purchased - sometimes even until Monday morning of the subsequent week. They may charge a fee, but it will be a lot less than the $75 to do an exchange.

yes that is true, jerryff, that happened to me a few times, and she never charged me... it pays to build a good working relationship with a knowledgeable travel agent... http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

Tino:
I really don't give a crap as to what South West air does with their own tickets the fact is they are taking losses all the time...I got into a big 75.00 change with with a passenger the other day, he decided since he was close to boston he would drive...I spent 30 minutes of my freaking time with that idiot, explaining to him why there was a fee for a routing change. I had to tell him that he purchased a segment from JFK to BOS, he said he was doing us a favor and letting someone else take his seat....ohh no no no...I made him..its part of the rules..get over it people 75.00USD is nothing maybe later I will suggest to the airlines to raise to 100+...We as american people take to much for granted...maybe we need to learn from the europeans...and thats a fact!!!

[QUOTE]Originally posted by vikinglova:
[B]Tino:
I really don't give a crap as to what South West air does with their own tickets the fact is they are taking losses all the time...

Southwest is the only airline that has shown a profit every single year since it started back in the early 1970's. They must be doing something right.

If Airlines only pay travel agents 5% to book and issue a ticket and they cap this at $50.00 max, why do they charge you $75.00 for them to reissue a ticket?????

Here is the airline's rationale for the $75 service charge. Please don't interpret my posting as agreement with it - just an explanation.

Originally, the change fee was $25, then it was raised to $35, then $50, then $75. In addition to being a way to just generate more revenue, the high change fee is related to people using back-to-back tickets. You need to make 2 mid-week trips about 3 weeks apart. So you buy a couple of back-to backs (on different airlines to avoid potential problems). You are sure of the dates of the first trip but not the 2nd. Once the 2nd trip is set, you just pay the change fee in each direction and save a lot of money.

Obviously, the airlines don't like this (understatement?) and so they have gradually raised the change fee to discourage this type of practice, or at least to make it more expensive.

If I read vikinglova's post correctly, airlines charge $75 because it's part of the rules and therefore ok, we (the consumers) are idiots, and besides $75 is "nothing." (Everything is relative.) As for learning from the Europeans, I hope VL does not mean learning to accept subpar service, inattentive sales clerks, and unresponsive monopolies. There's much to appreciate in Europe - the level of customer service in many European countries, and customers' tolerance of it, is surely not one of them.

Since most of the trips I fly are less than $500 advance fares (unless UA sucker-punches me on a walkup fare), the $75 is a huge penalty, especially since there are competitors that do -not- charge it.

Maybe if it is that one annual vacation Mom and Pop take, $75 is not much. I make 60-80 business trips and 20-25 leisure trips a year. Paying to change is serious money, and due to my job, I end up changing about a third of my flights. You can tell your marketing department that people actively avoid their airline because of it.

Please raise your change fee, forcing more and more tickets to be "throwaways". It will only help SWA as people get screwed and learn their lesson. Make it $500!

In addition, what is the "cost" to put FF miles back into an account? Is it near $75 as well?