You don’t have to live in fear of change fees
Careful consumers can reduce or avoid monstrous penalties when flight itineraries have to be tweaked.
“Nothing is so painful to the human mind,” Victor Frankenstein says in the Mary Shelley horror classic, “as a great and sudden change.”
These days, few things are as painful to the human pocketbook as a great and sudden change in your airline travel plans. A change in those plans can be so expensive it can feel like a bolt in the neck.
We travelers paid almost $3 billion in change fees last year, according to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics, about the cost of seven A380s. Nowadays, the fees for changes in a domestic ticket can be as much as $200 and often more than double that for an international flight, wiping out a big part of the value of your ticket.
If your plans change, you can avoid the dreaded fee, but it takes some doing (and sometimes some money). Let us count the ways you might escape them:
Buy a fully refundable ticket. Let’s say you are flying round trip from LAX to Washington, D.C., on American in mid-October. A search on Monday showed a fare of $351 for a nonrefundable ticket, which is about 85% of all tickets sold. A fully refundable ticket costs $1,327. Whether it’s worth it depends on your needs and the peculiarities of your schedule.
Buy a ticket from an airline that doesn’t charge change
fees. That usually means Southwest. If you have to rebook, you’ll have to pay the difference in fares. But there’s no charge for the change. You won’t get your money back if you have to cancel the whole trip, but you will have a credit for a future flight.
George Hobica, founder of Airfarewatchdog.com, also notes that Alaska Airlines will allow you to change without charge if your flight is 60 or more days away.
Buy a ticket that allows you to offset the cost of the fee if you have to change. On American Airlines, you can buy a Choice Plus ticket. For the same October dates as above, I found a Choice Plus ticket for $511. For that, the change fee is waived, and you also get bonus miles plus a same-day flight change if you need it.
Change within 24 hours of booking. Some airlines allow you to hold a reservation for 24 hours without booking; some allow you to cancel and change a booking within 24 hours as long as the flight is more than seven days away. They don’t have to do both. But under a Department of Transportation rule, there should be no penalty if you decide to change (or cancel). You’ll have to read the airline website carefully to find out which option is offered.
Book with an airline that allows same-day changes for less than the full penalty. I recently stumbled upon this when I wanted to return early from a trip to Boston. American allowed me to switch my flight for $75. Among others that allow this: United ($75, unless you have elite frequent flier status) and Delta ($50, unless you’re an elite flier).
In fact, if you’re an elite flier, you’re going to escape most of the fees that plague the rest of us leisure travelers, who tend to buy on price. This means reading the terms and conditions in the airline small type, but it will save you big bucks.