Anyone who travels has been there at some point. After locking in a nonrefundable ticket, something happens and the ticket needs to be changed. Sometimes, airlines change schedules. It’s unfair how passengers are penalized and airlines let themselves off scot-free.
It doesn’t matter if the changes need to me made months in advance and the flights are wide open, a fee applies. Normally, a substantial fee. This, the airlines justify by saying it’s the cost of doing business, and passengers who think they might need to change their ticket should just buy unrestricted tickets.
Okay, accepting that premise, why don’t airlines feel like they should cover passenger costs when their dates change.
I’m not talking about delays and last-minute flight cancellations, although that’s an issue too, since compensation for such things varies so widely. I’m discussing schedule changes that take place long before take-off that have monetary repercussions.
A client booked a ticket earlier this year on United for travel to Accra, Ghana, while they were coordinating land arrangements. The ticket has a $400+ change fee.
Last weekend. however, United reduced their schedule for Accra to five days a week, and of course they canceled the date she was booked. Now, with this cancellation, she is at least allowed to change dates, or a refund on the ticket.
But to make her land arrangements fit, she now has to pay an extra hotel night, or pay the ground operator a penalty. To make matters worse, the other airline who flies that route with a convenient schedule has raised their fare several hundred dollars in the meantime.
So one way or another, my client will pay more. (I am writing to customer relations, but the official policy is that if she doesn’t want the alternative dates there will be no further compensation than a refund.)
It’s completely understandable that the economy or vagaries of airline availability might result in a carrier needing to change schedules, so I’m not bothered so much by this or other changes.
What makes me, and other travel agents and their clients crazy, is that when it’s a traveler’s extenuating circumstance that forces a change, it’s the passenger’s problem. But when it’s an airline’s issue, it’s still the traveler’s problem.
Not that it’s likely to happen, but wouldn’t it be nice if an airline, which drastically changed their flights (with no good alternative option), paid ticketed travelers the exact same penalty they would have charged the traveler to make a change.
We can dream, can’t we?
Janice Hough is a California-based travel agent a travel blogger and a part-time comedy writer. A frequent flier herself, she’s been doing battle with airlines, hotels, and other travel companies for over three decades. Besides writing for Travelers United, Janice has a humor blog at Leftcoastsportsbabe.com (Warning, the political and sports humor therein does not represent the views of anyone but herself.)
