{"id":3261,"date":"2020-09-07T09:24:14","date_gmt":"2020-09-07T09:24:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/travel\/?p=3261"},"modified":"2020-09-07T12:29:13","modified_gmt":"2020-09-07T12:29:13","slug":"this-week-in-travel-september-7-2020-airline-change-fees","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/travel\/this-week-in-travel-september-7-2020-airline-change-fees\/","title":{"rendered":"Airline Change Fees Are Disappearing, And Other Goodies – This Week In Travel"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

It’s been a good week although, in the age of COVID, the word “good” is a relative term. But we’ve gotten some little victories: The 2020-21 NBA World Champion Boston Celtics are up 2-0 on the Toronto Raptors, I have a free year of Apple TV+ (with no idea what to watch) and we’re going to be paying a little less in airline change fees going forward, as several carriers announced that they are eliminating the pesky charges. So here we go:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Airline Ticket Change Fees Are Changing<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Well, this one was a surprise. Scott Kirby, the CEO of United who is generally regarded as one of the smartest revenue management guys in the industry, has announced that it is going to voluntarily surrender millions of dollars by permanently* eliminating change fees<\/a> on all domestic tickets except for Basic Economy. They’re also going to waive change fees for same-day standby, meaning that they’ve finally decided that sending out empty seats earlier in the day costs more than they are generating from charging fees to switch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It didn’t take long before American<\/a>, Delta<\/a> and Alaska Airlines<\/a> all announced that they would be waiving their ticket change fees, as well. Monkey see, monkey do. Congratulations! They’ve almost made it to where Southwest has always been.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I’m surprised that the airlines made this move, although I guess they don’t exactly have a lot of revenue coming in right now, anyway. I’ve never been a big fan of nuisance fees. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the airlines have the right to charge them. The argument “But it only costs them a few cents to make the change, why are they charging me $200?!”<\/em> never made a lot of sense to me. If the world operated on a cost-plus model, popcorn and soda at the movies would cost you about a dime. Airlines are profit-seeking private companies, not public utilities, even if we treat them as such. Airlines are a lot more fun to fly when they’re making money. An airline in bankruptcy cuts amenities and employee salaries, which makes for a really un-fun flight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other Cool Bits From The World Of Travel<\/h3>\n\n\n\n