Excessive change fees. Am I the only person who feels this way?

[bPeteb]

So I booked our flights to HK under the PE companion sale. I think we paid a great price, $1340 each BNE-HKG return. I was going to pay using my Qcash card (only $10pp fee) until I read that I only get 1 point for $2 spend (it's loaded for a pending holiday). So I gritted my teeth and paid by ccard along with the $30pp 'processing' fee but at least got $4$ points for the whole purchase.

Then yesterday we realised that we have a public holiday (Brisbane G20 stay away from the city day) at the end of the week and could have stayed away longer with only one extra leave day each. That was until the change fees and charges popped up with a total amount of $400 for me to change a fare that totalled $2700!

Am I being unreasonable thinking that this charge is excessive? The credit card fees are bad enough but a change fee of $50pp/sector just seems exorbitant. It's more than 10% of the fare.

I know it's just the way it is but I'm so sick of being charged for things that I do myself.

Oh, and no, we didn't pay the fee. We're just leaving it at five nights away instead of eight.

 

[JohnK]

Yes change fees can be excessive.

From memory the change fees on one of my bookings ex-Asia was ~AUD300. The airfare was <AUD1,000.

 

[muppet]

So I booked our flights to HK under the PE companion sale. I think we paid a great price, $1340 each BNE-HKG return. I was going to pay using my Qcash card (only $10pp fee) until I read that I only get 1 point for $2 spend (it's loaded for a pending holiday). So I gritted my teeth and paid by ccard along with the $30pp 'processing' fee but at least got $4$ points for the whole purchase.

Then yesterday we realised that we have a public holiday (Brisbane G20 stay away from the city day) at the end of the week and could have stayed away longer with only one extra leave day each. That was until the change fees and charges popped up with a total amount of $400 for me to change a fare that totalled $2700!

Am I being unreasonable thinking that this charge is excessive? The credit card fees are bad enough but a change fee of $50pp/sector just seems exorbitant. It's more than 10% of the fare.

I know it's just the way it is but I'm so sick of being charged for things that I do myself.

Oh, and no, we didn't pay the fee. We're just leaving it at five nights away instead of eight.

Has it been ticketed?

Sometimes they will make a change for free if it hasn't ticketed (ie PDF e-ticket in your email). Give them a call.

 

[puppysparkes]

I regularly purchase a $50 qantas gift voucher to avoid the processing fee for domestic sectors. I always assumed this option applied for international sectors also?

 

[serfty]

I regularly purchase a $50 qantas gift voucher to avoid the processing fee for domestic sectors. I always assumed this option applied for international sectors also?

It does - one-way or return, ex Oz only.

 

[Cruiser Elite]

IMHO change fees levied by airlines across the world make Ned Kelly look like Mother Theresa - absolute daylight robbery.

15mths ago I was in LAS with a mate who requested timing change on an AA itinerary - 5th and final leg of multi leg booking - LAS-LAX - fee to change USD600 - WTF - he booked Southwest at $60 and called AA and told them he would not be taking the flt - sorry for OT rant.

 

[dajop]

Although I do agree change fees can be excessive, it's also important to differentiate change fees from different fares because original fare is unavailable. I've heard people (outside off AFF) talks about, for example costing $200 extra to change a $150 fare, and comment on how expensive change fees are. In reality it's probably a $50 change fee and another $150 because only a much higher fare class is available. A subtle distinction that is lost on most people,

 

[drewbles]

IMHO change fees levied by airlines across the world make Ned Kelly look like Mother Theresa - absolute daylight robbery.

15mths ago I was in LAS with a mate who requested timing change on an AA itinerary - 5th and final leg of multi leg booking - LAS-LAX - fee to change USD600 - WTF - he booked Southwest at $60 and called AA and told them he would not be taking the flt - sorry for OT rant.

AA offer same day changes for $70, if they were wanting to change to another flight on the same day.

 

[NM]

Excessive is a comparative term. Change fees is one of the main mechanisms that airlines use to differentiate their fares. Some people, particular business travelers, are willing to pay a higher fare in order to have flexibility to make changes. If the cheapest of fares had no (or low) change fees, nobody would purchase the higher fares until all the cheaper fares had sold out. The result would be that the airlines would need to be more restrictive with the availability of the cheap fares in order to get the same mix of fares sold and hence the same total revenue as they have now.

So high change fees is the cost we pay for the availability of low fares. If we want the airlines to remove or reduce the change fees, the base fares will need to be higher to compensate. So ultimately, I see it is "our" fault the fare conditions are as they are. "We" (the traveling public who by the air fares) are always seeking the cheapest fares, with the fare price often being the factor that determines which airline we choose to buy from. So our demand for lower fares means the airlines need to ensure they still have a revenue stream that includes people willing to pay higher fares for not just last minute bookings. This differentiation is achieved by imposing restrictive change and cancellation fees on the cheapest fares.

So I blame "us" for the fare conditions, rather than blaming the airlines.

Is it excessive? Perhaps. But will it change? Unlikely while we continue to demand lower fares.

 

[markis10]

AA offer same day changes for $70, if they were wanting to change to another flight on the same day.

Its now $75

American Airlines Same-Day Travel Changes & Flight Changes | aa.com

 

[Cruiser Elite]

AA offer same day changes for $70, if they were wanting to change to another flight on the same day.

NFI - was Sept 2012 - discount J / F - LAX-MIA-SDQ / SDI-MIA-LAS-LAX - only reporting info he gave me.

 

[serfty]

NFI - was Sept 2012 - discount J / F - LAX-MIA-SDQ / SDI-MIA-LAS-LAX - only reporting info he gave me.

Discount J/F can be interpreted differently than economy for same day changes due to legacy issues with "Instant Upgrade" fares.

 

[Nizar]

Although I do agree change fees can be excessive, it's also important to differentiate change fees from different fares because original fare is unavailable. I've heard people (outside off AFF) talks about, for example costing $200 extra to change a $150 fare, and comment on how expensive change fees are. In reality it's probably a $50 change fee and another $150 because only a much higher fare class is available. A subtle distinction that is lost on most people,

Tend to agree.
I'm going to the world cup in Brazil and flying TK from KUL-IST-GRU return.
Picked up a fare in October for about A$1950. Thought it was a great deal seeing that the cheapest I could find out of Oz was about A$3,500 on QR.

In the end we decided to get to Brazil a few days earlier as we booked another match. Originally flying out of 25th June, changed it the other day to 21st June.
Change fee was EU30 per person. But the fare difference killed us.
US$452 a person plus MYR100.
Apparently the only remaining Y seats available on the day we wanted to fly out was in the highest fare class of Y.

 

[bPeteb]

Sadly no muppet, ticketed. I have to call them in any case because I can't submit an upgrade request for the HKG-SYD overnight leg online. Possibly because of the mixed classes on the e-ticket? 50k points seems a small price for our first QF J experience, unless anyone can advise that PE will give us what the J will (should?).

 

[bPeteb]

Although I do agree change fees can be excessive, it's also important to differentiate change fees from different fares because original fare is unavailable. I've heard people (outside off AFF) talks about, for example costing $200 extra to change a $150 fare, and comment on how expensive change fees are. In reality it's probably a $50 change fee and another $150 because only a much higher fare class is available. A subtle distinction that is lost on most people,

agree entirely dajop, but in this instance it was very clear that the fare difference was $0, the $400 was all change fees. The QF site is very good in that it displays any applicable fare difference.

I think the whole QF site is getting better and better. Maybe that's why the fees are going up and up, to pay for their website developers ;-)

 

[AVC]

I tried to change one of our AA sectors last month. Earlier flight same day, DFW-MSY.

The change fee was higher (like 2x higher) than the original fare. Would have been cheaper to do a no-show and just buy new tix. We just waited the 2 hours.