is us the only airline that artifically raises the fare when changing a flight??
 

because of the nature of my work, often I have to change flights at the last minute--my company encourages me to buy the cheapest flights, so the refundable options are way too extreme. But recently I had to rebook a flight, I was totally ok paying the $200 change fee, but the flight change was several hundred dollars when booking it thru" change my flight." When I booked that same flight under a new window(not booking thru flight change, just pretending it was a brand new booking) it was several hundred dollars cheaper. with Delta (when I flew thru CVG) I was issued e credits that I could use minus the change fee, so it wasnt a bad proposition. is US Air the only airline that plays this game, or have other airlines starting doing this??
It really stinks!!!

If the new fare through "change my flight" is too high, then (1) cancel the original ticket and (2) book a new ticket. You can use the credit in the future, perhaps for a later booking.

when I called us air they said this was the only way I could do the rebooking....

Don't believe everything you're told by a US agent.

Just cancel the ticket, instead of changing it. Then use the credit to buy a new ticket.

You can always cancel for a credit and then use that credit less $200 to purchase a new ticket. If that is a savings, do it that way.

wow that is awesome info--thank you!!!!!!

one more thing--do you call and cancel, or cancel online? and thanks!!

You can cancel a trip online. You can then book a new trip with the credit online.

From my experience, calling will mess things up; do it yourself and do it online and you won't be given misinformation by a US agent.

How do you book a new trip with the credit (versus changing an existing trip) online? Delta for ex makes this easy, but I've never known how to do this on US. Only way I'm aware of is to look up the original, cancelled reservation and click "Change My Trip" which is the same as a straight change, not a new trip with a new PNR etc.

One clarification its the credit amount + $200, you can't use the credit to cover the change fee.

so if you have a $500 credit and are buying a $300 ticket, it won't be a wash. you would still owe the change fee.

And remember that when you change a flight or cancel/book a new flight you're paying the fare at that time - possibly full Y fare - while the previous ticket may not have been as expensive. So it's not that US is artificially raising fares, rather that the lowest fare when you originally booked is less than the fare when you make the change.

Jim

Also note that the fare and the change fee show up as two different charges on your card when making a change to a non refundable ticket. Meaning you have a $400 flight and you change to a $1000 flight (for whatever reason, just using numbers that are far apart), then there will be a $600 ticket purchase charge and a $200 change fee charge on your card. This is significant because if you have a card that reimburses the change fee (Amex plat, RC Visa, etc.) then you can have that $200 reimbursed to you. Made this mistake the other day and I'm fighting with US accounts receivables to try to change the charge to my amex from my US mastercard.

Go Gators

OP isn't saying the fare is higher than when he originally booked. He's saying that when he uses "change my flight" mechanism online, the fares that are spit out are higher than when he does a dummy booking, as a separate booking at the same time. Nothing to do with the fare that was paid originally.

Cheers.

Yes, exactly-- thanks:)

What you originally wrote is that "the flight change" was several hundred dollars than a new booking. Given the change fee, that makes sense. Using flight change you pay the new fare plus the change fee while with a new booking you just pay the new fare. In both cases you could be paying more than the original fare but that's not unusual when changing or booking a ticket in - no "game" by US there.

If you meant that only the fare portion of flight change was several hundred more fine, but that's not what you originally said. Without the fare rules and fare class of the new ticket both ways there's no way to tell if it's a game or not.

Jim