Another reason to use Online Agencies vs. Airline

[thereuare]

It's no wonder the airlines are in constant financial trouble and a recent situation is a good example why:

My wife was booked on a Delta ticket she bought thru Expedia (~$300) about 2 weeks before the flight. Due to a change in plans, she needed to change the return flight to one day earlier or re-book the trip. This is Delta's new policy:

No more standby. You can get a confirmed seat for a flight the same day as your ticket for a $25 fee if you book within 3 hours of the new flight time. Any other changes, whether outside of the 3 hour window OR for a different flight day requires a $100 fee plus the difference in fare.

I don't have any major problems with the above although 3 hours is a bit tight and 24 hours would seem more appropriate, but again, not a problem with the overall rule. Here's where is gets ugly...

Scenario 1 (ugly):

The new fare for her trip would be ~$650, so to change the return would incurr a $100 fee plus a new fare fee of $350 for a total of an additional $450. I know it's technically against their rules, but it would have been cheaper to forget about her return trip home on that ticket, buy a new roundtrip ticket commencing in her departure city, and then forget about the return on that second ticket (essentially having 2 RT tickets and only using the first leg of each). This additional ticket could have been purchased for $350, thus saving $100. As well, i could have the possibility of a partial refund if certain flights left late stating that the new delayed time no longer worked with my schedule.

So, with a financial situation as ridiculous as the above, why don't the airlines calculate the fee and then calculate an alternate case as i've presented and then charge the customer the lesser of the two? This would be a win-win situations since it would make the customer happy, still give the airline a penalty fee to increase their own revenue, and also free up 2 additional seats that they can then re-sell. Just seems like bad business, but Scenario 2 makes even less sense...

Scenario 2 (uglier):

My wife decided to cancel the trip entirely and re-book for 3 weeks out, which had the same fare of $300 on Expedia. We could cancel the above ticket for $100 and use the balance as a credit for the new flight... essentiallly changing the entire plans for $100. I called Delta to cancel the old ticket and get the new one but was told that the new ticket was now $400 (not the $300 that i saw on both Expedia's and Delta's websites). I asked if i could apply a credit via the website and was told it couldn't be done. I then asked if i called Expedia if they could issue the credit and re-book me on the new flights and was told yes... so that's what i did and the net additional cost was $100.

I can understand a policy such as JetBlue's of $5 savings for online transactions, but a $100+ difference in fare between online and telephone is just stupid. Even more stupid is not enabling me to make changes directly with the airline i'm booked on but making it easier for me to do so when booking thru the original agent. Even if i booked the original ticket online at Delta's website i would have been out of luck changing this ticket with them for only $100 since i wouldn't have been able to apply the credit toward their webfare (it would have cost me twice as much). Why do they make policies which encourage their customers to go someplace else?

So the bottom line is that since most times the cheapest fares are found online, if you ever need to change/alter/cancel a ticket you may be much better off if you're dealing with an online agency than directly with the airline as the online agency has much more flexibility with applying credits to webfares (which are often significantly cheaper).

Hope i explained this clearly enough but if anything needs clarification i'd be happy to explain further.

[gleff]

Another positive about Expedia is that they'll cancel and refund any ticket within 24 hours of purchase (but they won't refund their booking fee).

Separately, when making same-day confirmed changes, I've always been able to do it for the fee alone and any difference in fare has been nominal. So if I bought a 14 day advance purchase ticket (say, booked in "V" class), and the day before my return I need to make a change I'm going to be paying the $100 + whatever the current "V" fare is, not plus whatever the difference for a no advance purchase fare is .. as long as the flight shows availability for a V fare basis. It's only if the flight is basically full, with the cheap fare buckets zeroed out, where I've had to 'buy up' to make a change.

Relatedly, the benefit that I miss the most on United is that they used to allow free confirmed same day changes for their 1K and Premier Executive members. So as long as the fare class was available, they would change any flight to any other same-day flight IN ADVANCE with no fee whatsoever. Bummer that it's gone.

[iahphx]

You raise an interesting point, thereuare, that should get more attention in the media. The airlines are truly shooting themselves in the foot by not allowing rebooking pax to use the cheaper webfares. Since they are already charging a rather steep $100 change fee, it is pretty much unconscionable not to let their pax get the best fare.

One thing I wonder about, though, are the latest policies regarding display of cheaper webfares. I recall that the airlines are contractually-bound to offer those fares to Orbitz (a company majority-owned by the major airlines), but I don't recall the latest regarding Expedia and Travelocity. I know they were initially trying to keep those fares off Expedia and Travelocity, but I recall that they recently relented, at least to some degree.

[gleff]

You raise an interesting point, thereuare, that should get more attention in the media. The airlines are truly shooting themselves in the foot by not allowing rebooking pax to use the cheaper webfares. Since they are already charging a rather steep $100 change fee, it is pretty much unconscionable not to let their pax get the best fare.

United now lets you make changes to itineraries online. Doing so gives you access to internet-only fares when doing so.