Comments on: Why Southwest Should Consider a Change Fee

By: Wonko Beeblebrox

Wonko Beeblebrox — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 01:26:43 +0000

BTW- you could also simply have purchased a new one way ticket back on another airline and then reused the value of your original return ticket on some later flight (a “cheap” one…).

There’s no change fee on Southwest…

By: Wonko Beeblebrox

Wonko Beeblebrox — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 01:22:37 +0000

I think you might be missing their point.

Assume it isn’t a same day “standby” type change (since you can’t ahead of time guarantee there would be room for you on that earlier flight anyway).

Any other airline would be a $150 change fee PLUS that $300 difference in fare. For each of you. Plus luggage fees.

(As an aside, would you have preferred if there was no room for you on the flight you changed to?)

By: Deborah

Deborah — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 00:30:46 +0000

You missed my point completely. I mean to say that we would have gladly paid the $100.00 change fee assessed by other carriers rather than the difference in airfare which was $610.00 not known as a change fee. I am all for SWA putting in place change fees rather than the way it stands right now. @ Thomas Edward Parody:

By: CF

CF — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 22:15:46 +0000

Deborah wrote:

Unfortunately, I know why my husband and I don’t fly SWA. While the airlines does not call it a “change fee”, it certainly has one – the difference between fares.

You must be talking about same-day standby only, right? Yes, to standby for an earlier flight, you have to pay the difference in fare while other airlines don't charge you for that. But for any other changes, other airlines charge you the difference in fare + the change fee while Southwest just charges the difference in fare.

By: Thomas Edward Parody

Thomas Edward Parody — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 19:55:44 +0000

@ Deborah: Deborah, You mean to tell me (us) that this is only reason that you don't fly Southwest? If the fare for the earlier flight was $300 less, I would suspect that you would be a regular user and you wouldn't care whether it was called a change fee or not.

By: Deborah

Deborah — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 18:22:56 +0000

Unfortunately, I know why my husband and I don’t fly SWA. While the airlines does not call it a “change fee”, it certainly has one – the difference between fares. In our particular instance, we wanted to leave on a earlier flight, and found the difference in fare $300+ per ticket however the customer service rep continued to insist that there was “no change fee”. As a result, we will not be “changing” our flight and will not fly SWA again. While I realize this is in the fine print and readily available information, this is outrageous. As frequent flyers using Continental, we are not charged baggage fees and they do have change fees of reasonable amounts.

By: Wes

Wes — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 14:58:33 +0000

Neoncactus, your post at 1325 on 06/02 says it all. Thanks for spelling it out as you did, I was beginning to think I was the only one who sees it that way.

By: CF

CF — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 02:47:19 +0000

kaszeta – Thanks for bringing this up. I could have been more clear with my proposal, but it certainly would not include change fees on full fare “business select” tickets. That is a good benefit that could help make people buy up to higher fares.

nsx – That could potentially backfire as well, but I like the way you think. Free publicity is good publicity, and it certainly would put the change fee issue front and center. Really, they could just announce that they were studying a change fee and potentially get the same level of press.

By: nsx

nsx — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 21:30:39 +0000

My typical ticket price on Southwest is $60, tax included. Compared to that, a $25 change fee looms quite large. I wouldn’t switch airlines, but I really wouldn’t like it.

If Southwest thought that customers were upset at the loss of double Rapid Rewards credits and the imposition of capacity controls on RR awards, those would be nothing compared to the outcry if Southwest began charging change fees.

The only way this might be a win for Southwest is if Southwest were to announce change fees, wait 3 to 7 days for the media wave to crest, then reverse course with a big ad campaign. Think New Coke. Southwest would gain a massive amount of free publicity for its “no change fee” policy, at a time when many airline customers will have already paid $150 fees to other airlines and may not be aware that Southwest does not charge a fee. This scenario is probably too clever by half.

By: kaszeta

kaszeta — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 20:14:12 +0000

I easily agree that, in general, a $25 change fee is good low hanging fruit.

However, I’d definitely make sure that “no change fee” was one of the benefits included in “business select” fares. It seems a reasonable perk for them to keep with that level of ticket.