Don't make my mistake!

[LandChildWorldAdult]

Case in opposing point. Boston to Orlando.
Southwest $333, Delta $209
Southwest baggage fee $0, Delta baggage fee $15 (only check one bag, no matter what airline)
Southwest soft drink charge $0, Delta soft drink charge $0
Southwest snack charge $0, Delta snack charge $0
Southwest total $333, Delta total $231

Customers also have the responsibility to know the conditions of any purchase they make.

Yup, and I booked Delta originally for our December trip. Then THEY changed my direct flight to a stop over flight and increased my travel time by 2 hours each way PLUS moved up my departure time.

A LONG but friendly conversation with them resulted in a full refund ... but I would have saved $100/ticket iirc had I booked with Southwest out of Manchester to start with. Lesson learned.

I will stick with Southwest. YMWV, I'm sure.

 

[TillyMarigold]

SW does sell tickets for $100 one way (or less) to Orlando from all over the country, doesn't charge for bags, doesn't arbitrarily charge a change fee, have the highest customer rating in the industry and MAKES MONEY DOING IT.

I beg to differ. The *cheapest* roundtrip I've ever found on Southwest from here is $350, and it takes several hours longer than using a more sensible layover (with Southwest I always have to fly west first and change in Salt Lake City or Phoenix, with other airlines I change in Denver, Houston, or Dallas). I can't fly *anywhere* on Southwest for cheaper than I can on United or Delta or American or US Airways or Continental. *All* of them are cheaper than Southwest's cheapest, non-refundable, web-only fees, even though all of them charge baggage fees.

 

[DebbieB]

No one disputes that airlines can do this. What surprises me is how a number of DIS members seem to believe that a charge of $150 x6 is justifiable to make a small itenerary change. Once you buy an airline ticket then the airlines have everything in their favor. Its possible that for some valued customers, AA will make the changes for no charge as a "courtesy". But to aggrevate your customer base seems very with an excessive charge seems stupid.

I presume that the OP (who lives in Dallas) will now look for ways to not fly AA. How many of the other members who contributed to the 2,920 views of this thread will do the same thing.

I don't think it's necessarily justifiable but those are the rules of the ticket she bought. I think it's unfair to single out AA because almost all of the airlines other than SW have these same rules. It would be no different if she bought the tickets on USAir or Delta or United. The bottom line is know the rules of what you are buying and weigh it against the options. SW does not have non-stops out of Dallas to Orlando, which is probably why she bought AA.

 

[PrincePrincePrincess]

Bummer. We're experiencing the same sort of thing. My husband ended up having the opportunity to take a couple extra days of leave but our plane tickets were already booked. All major carriers have these fees and they do not waive them. Five tickets at $150 a ticket = way too much money. But that's just the way it is.

While changing ONE ticket doesn't necessarily cost an airline anything, cheap/free changes would have to be available to everyone. What would it cost an airline to offer free changes to all? A lot! If one could freely change their ticket the call centers would be overwhelmed, requiring the hiring of more employees. Frequent and easy changes would be a logistical nightmare, and could potentially undermine the safety of airline passengers. It increases the risk for error, causing even more irrate passengers. Changes DO cost airlines money and being that I like the advantages of cheap airfare, I don't mind rules being put into place that maintains airline profit.

Southwest does have a great change policy but as a SW shareholder, I wish they'd do something to increase their profits.

 

[MelanieC]

I like SW - I just go on their website, see what is available for the same fare and change it. Now if it costs more I have to pay more, but at least it gives you the option without the fee.

 

[lhuggi1]

These are great ideas but I already looked into it and SW tickets would cost $1500 plus AA would take $600 out of our credit because it is again another change in tickets. AA has been unbelivably rude through all this. I was suprised since I'm a nice person and I hate confrontations and believe a good attitude goes a long way but these people are just mean! I think they need a trip to disney

maybe try cheapoair dot com
or jetblue seat sale for a few cheaper ideas
hope it works out I am sending pixie dust for you all !!!

 

[lugnut33]

Yup, and I booked Delta originally for our December trip. Then THEY changed my direct flight to a stop over flight and increased my travel time by 2 hours each way PLUS moved up my departure time.

A LONG but friendly conversation with them resulted in a full refund ... but I would have saved $100/ticket iirc had I booked with Southwest out of Manchester to start with. Lesson learned.

I will stick with Southwest. YMWV, I'm sure.

I'm sure Delta gave you $150 each for the change correct? If they can charge us, then why can't we charge them when they change schedules? Or when they are late (non-weather related).

 

[jen53207]

I REALLY feel for you. This exact thing happened to me back in November I think it was when the 4 for 3 came out. Our trip is in about 2 weeks and we had already booked our package back in August.

We are not travel savvy and I truly did not understand the ins and outs of booking a vacation. We are on a tight budget and this is our first family vacation.

Our big oops happened with AirTran. We can't take advantage of the extra days but we opted to upgrade to a deluxe. Took me a while to come to terms with it - but what are you gonna do, you know?

 

[kaytieeldr]

But my argument is what is the COST of doing that? It didn't cost them $100-150 to do it in the first place.

Doesn't matter what the administrative cost or the potential loss to the airline. The cost to the CUSTOMER for opting for the lowest NONrefundable - aka no changes possible - fare is whatever the airline decides. It doesn't reflect the cost of the transaction, it reflects the cost of opting for a fare that is not eligible for changes.

 

[kaytieeldr]

No one disputes that airlines can do this. What surprises me is how a number of DIS members seem to believe that a charge of $150 x6 is justifiable to make a small itenerary change

It is absolutely justifiable when the customer knowingly purchases a nonrefundable fare and is informed at the time of purchase that it will cost $X to make ANY changes.

Its possible that for some valued customers, AA will make the changes for no charge as a "courtesy".

And.... those would be the customers who purchased refundable fares. Period.

 

[doconeill]

Doesn't matter what the administrative cost or the potential loss to the airline. The cost to the CUSTOMER for opting for the lowest NONrefundable - aka no changes possible - fare is whatever the airline decides. It doesn't reflect the cost of the transaction, it reflects the cost of opting for a fare that is not eligible for changes.

Actually, the cost of opting for the lowest NONrefundable fare is not being able to get a refund (i.e. your money back if you cancel). You are welcome to make changes, obviously - they do not treat it as a refund and repurchase, as that would still be a refund which you are not entitled to. I had a flight a couple years ago that was full priced - ridiculously so, only about $50 less than the first class ticket I had on the way down but it was coach (my company paid for that and the first class seat was the only seat available), and they wanted me to pay $100 to switch to an earlier flight which had seats available when weather delays were setting in. Upgrade to first class? They still wanted another $1000, even though my other ticket was only $50 more. I think most airlines waive that fee for all but the cheapest fares now though.

I am NOT arguing that you are subject to whatever charges you agreed to on purchasing the tickets. All I'm saying is that they are charging more and higher fees beyond their true costs, supposedly to make up for "higher fuel costs" (and I remember seeing a "fuel surcharge fee" on a recent ticket as well), but when the higher fuel costs went away, the fees stayed or even increased under other excuses. And they will NEVER go away no matter what, unless the economy airlines win even more market share and they are forced to compete directly at that level.

 

[stitch1094]

They have, but airfare continues to be at record lows. It's cheaper to fly today than it ever has been. Forget adjusting for inflation, you don't even need to do that.

In 1995, it would cost $500, in 1995 dollars (about $700 in today's dollars) to fly cross country, and today you can often do it for less than $300.

It's a fair trade if you ask me.

You shouldn't make blanket statements like that. I for one, can disagree with your all time low fares. Our trip from BDL to MCO runs roughly 250 to 300 RT. Earlier this decade the same trip ran anywhere from $125 to $150 RT. The best price we paid was $99 RT. This was in the summer of 2000.

 

[Esmerelda]

I do alot of travel arrangements at work. To date, I've ticketed 268 different fares in the last 3 months.

What you can do is just book a one way ticket. Use the original leg of your original ticket. When returning, use the one way ticket. It will probably come out cheaper for you all the way around.

This has happened about 4 times to me with all of these employees going for training.

I'm not sure if anyone else has offered this suggestion because I didn't get to read thru all responses.

Best of luck...

 

[kaytieeldr]

Actually, the cost of opting for the lowest NONrefundable fare is not being able to get a refund (i.e. your money back if you cancel). You are welcome to make changes, obviously - they do not treat it as a refund and repurchase, as that would still be a refund which you are not entitled to.

Actually, that's exactly what it is and that's exactly how the airlines treat it. They DO have to cancel your existing reservation, issue a(n internal) refund, and issue you a new ticket on the different flight.

But the cost to the airline doesn't matter. What DOES matter is the fee - whatever it may be - is the penalty one is required to pay for not sticking with the contract, i.e. the nonrefundable ticket. It's very simple for passengers to be able to make changes to their flight itinerary, whether it be to cancel entirely or to change planes. Purchase an unrestricted fare.

 

[lugnut33]

Actually, that's exactly what it is and that's exactly how the airlines treat it. They DO have to cancel your existing reservation, issue a(n internal) refund, and issue you a new ticket on the different flight.

But the cost to the airline doesn't matter. What DOES matter is the fee - whatever it may be - is the penalty one is required to pay for not sticking with the contract, i.e. the nonrefundable ticket. It's very simple for passengers to be able to make changes to their flight itinerary, whether it be to cancel entirely or to change planes. Purchase an unrestricted fare.

Or switch to another airline entirely. To hedoublehockeysticks with the legacy carriers.

 

[DebbieB]

Or switch to another airline entirely. To hedoublehockeysticks with the legacy carriers.

Sometimes it's not that simple. If SW is the lowest fare and the flight times you want, then the choice is easy. But if SW is much higher and you have 5 people, then you have to weigh the differences and decide if you want to gamble. Another example is if you can get a non-stop on a legacy carrier vs a connection on SW. You have to get all the facts and make a decision.

 

[hockeybabe]

Here in Dallas, Southwest flies out of the Dallas-Love Field airport, not out of DFW. Dallas-Love Field is governed by the Wright Ammendment, which forces any airline flying out of that airport to land in an adjacent state before continuing on to whatever destination it is headed to. So you cannot get a non-stop direct flight to anywhere outside of Texas on Southwest. Our second trip to Disney we flew SW out of Dallas, and we had to land in New Orleans for 1/2 hour on the way to MCO, and on the way back we had to transfer planes in Houston. We take shorter trips (5 days or so) so the kids only miss two days of school, so taking anything less than a direct flight wastes valuable Disney time. We like SW, but fly AA for the non-stop flight. We haven't had problems with AA, save one, but we've never had to change our schedule. I book my flights about 6 months out, but I am a compulsive planner, and deal or no deal, I have to stick with my schedule because of the kids and thier school.

So if the OP wants a non-stop flight, she can't fly SW out of Dallas.

 

[lugnut33]

Sometimes it's not that simple. If SW is the lowest fare and the flight times you want, then the choice is easy. But if SW is much higher and you have 5 people, then you have to weigh the differences and decide if you want to gamble. Another example is if you can get a non-stop on a legacy carrier vs a connection on SW. You have to get all the facts and make a decision.

At this point I'd pay a little extra to not fly AA.

BTW, I should point out that I've not been stung by the draconian AA policies, but I just don't think they are fair. Sort of like the same way Belle's father Maurice was thrown in Jail, it was unfair. Sure, it was totally within thier rights to do that kind of stuff back then, but it was still unjust and really hurts the common person.

 

[bamagirl@hrt]

While I won't say that airline policies aren't fair, they are frustrating. I read up front when I purchase a ticket that it is nonrefundable. However, things can happen that I have no control over. Back in the fall, I learned two days before we were scheduled to leave for WDW that I had to have an emergency gallbladder removal surgery the next day. My doctor was willing to give me a letter stating that my situation was an emergency. I was flying Delta down to Orlando and US Airways back. I wanted to push my departure date back by one day, just to allow me 24 hours to recover before flying. The Delta agent had no sympathy. I was simply directed to write a letter and snail mail it to the corporate headquarters in Atlanta. They would then review my case and decide if the $150 per ticket charge would be waived. I'd still have to pay the difference in the flight price, which was then $313 one way instead of the $59 I'd paid. US Airways showed a flight going down one the day I wanted for $69, so I asked what would happen if I just didn't show up for my Delta flight. The agent told me that even though my original flight was with two different carriers, the reservations were linked. If I didn't show up for the Delta flight, my US Airways flight would also be canceled. Therefore, I couldn't just say "forget Delta" and purchase new departure tickets with US Airways.

Even though my surgery was more complicated than originally thought, we still flew to WDW less than 24 hours after my surgery. My doctor was supportive and gave me good pain meds. I had a letter to allow me wheelchair access during my connection in Atlanta and upon arrival at MCO. So everything did work out in the end.

I won't say I'll never fly Delta again; they are one of the main carriers out of my small local airport. However, when flying to Orlando, I will use Airtran or Allegiant, especially since Allegiant will now be flying into MCO instead of Sanford!

 

[blondinkaya]

Airline policies are so frustrating. Even if they're within their rights to charge what they want to charge and say "too bad so sad, you should've read the fine print," I refuse to bow down and pay to be treated like cattle. Perks that came with flying are decreasing, yet costs keep rising and people are being nickel and dimed. Dh has to fly about once a month for his job, and he hates it. He said it's gotten to the point that he feels he's more on a subway than anything else.

For leisure trips ... No thank you, airlines, we'll drive. We even drove from Georgia to Seattle and back last year. It was a long trip, but we had a blast! It was about the journey as much as it was about the destination.

I do feel for those who have no choice but to fly these days ...