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United Airlines secretly raises ticket change fees
We are officially in the era of airline fees. Over the past few weeks, major carriers across the country have been implementing extra fees to check second bags on their aircraft. Now, beginning with United Airlines, they're starting to charge higher fees to change your ticket.The way the regular system works is as follows: when you buy a ticket you purchase your seat in a certain fare class, ranging from a full fare in first class to a deeply discounted ticket in coach. Among the tickets in your class of service, most are non-refundable tickets that you basically can't return after you swipe your card. Most airlines allow you to change that ticket however, with various stipulations. Often times the ticket needs to be in the same fare class and in all circumstances the airlines are going to hit you with a hefty fee. This varies from 50$ upwards based on the airline, class of ticket and elite status that the passenger may have with the airline.
In this instance, United raised their fee from 100$ up to 150$ to make any changes to your ticket. And they didn't even tell anybody when they did it last Friday night. News is just slowly seeping out now.
Often times, airlines will make these changes to affect the bottom tier of passengers, exempting many of the first class and elite customers. But not in this case. This is a unilateral 50$ increase in fees across the board, so even if you're super a super special elite passenger you still get screwed. Cool huh?
I wouldn't doubt if other airlines started increasing their fees to change tickets as well. Perhaps soon they will start charging for padding on our seats and the right to sit down?
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Flyerist Apr 24th 2008 8:46AM
Can we stop with the "screwed" commentary? This fee is completely avoidable, just don't change your ticket. Also UA offers same-day standby. Have a flight at 5pm, but your meetings are done by noon? You can standby, for free, for an earlier flight, while having the original 5pm flight as a guarantee.
Von May 9th 2008 11:02AM
"Stop with the 'screwed' commentary? Just don't change your ticket?" Hate to break it to you but plans change, situations change, etc. I'm not opposed to a reasonable fee to change flights, but I requested to change a return flight 2 months ahead of time and found out UA charges $100 per passenger. There are three of us total, so tack on $300 just to push the return date back a couple days. This might upset you, but a screw's a screw. $300 is almost an extra ticket. How is that charge justified? For UA, it's easy money. They have plenty of time to fill the seats. I'd consider standby if I was flying alone on a business trip, but traveling with wife and son I don't want to take chances and have to sit around O'Hare for hours holding our breath, waiting for someone to 'do us a favor.'
patrick May 28th 2008 11:29AM
For me flying monthly about twice a year they stick it to me where I get cronic ear infections and can't fly. I can't predict illness. this is my handicap and I pay these rip off fees.
Brandon Oct 6th 2008 12:40AM
I missed my flight, US Air's confirmation does not list the days of the week, only the date. I was only flying home because my mom is in the hospital, and would have left today if I knew. The change fee is $150, plus the difference of the current price. I bought a one way ticket on another airline because it was cheaper. US AIR now refuses to fly me home on the return flight I purchased unless I pay the change fee, because missing the outbound is a "change", although their fine print doesn't mention this. The return flight on US AIR today is $20 cheaper than the change fee. They are making me purchase my same flight twice in order to save money.