Monday, February 25, 2013

Live and learn about U.S. airline travel

Suppose, just hypothetically, that you were scheduled to take Flight A from New York to Chicago, followed by Flight B from Chicago to Champaign, IL - say, on American Airlines, although I suspect the policy is universal. Then you re-route other travel so that you will already be in Chicago and don't need Flight A. Suppose you call up the airline to cancel Flight A, so that they won't cancel the entire rest of your roundtrip reservation when you don't show up for it.

The question I want to ask is: Do you get hit with a change fee? If you had a nonrefundable, etc. ticket, do they charge you, say, $150 for "changing" your itinerary, when the only thing you are doing differently is LESS of the same?

The answer, apparently, is Yes.

3 comments:

Steven Shaviro said...

Yes, same thing has happened to me on more than one occasion.

Daniel Shaviro said...

BTW, I've tried to find out from contacts who are quasi-in the know whether the smart money is indeed betting on travel delays. One friend pointed out that the Obama Administration's statement that there will be disruptions would only make them look foolish, in very short order, if things don't play out that way. (And no one seriously believes that the whole thing will be settled before March 1, so it can't be a bluff.)

John Ramirez said...

This is one reason why I fly Southwest. When the worst case is a credit for my next flight (with no change fees), I'm happy.