A friend of mine told me a story that got me to thinking. (C’mon, I do, sometimes.) She had purchased a round trip ticket to fly from X to Y and then back to X. It was a pretty good price: $320.
As matters turned out (and they often do), my friend had to return home to X a day earlier than originally planned. She called the airline to see if there was a flight back from Y to X a day earlier. There was. It was the same time of day, just one day earlier. So my friend asked if she could just change her return flight from the original date to the same flight one day earlier.
Yes and no she was, in essence, told. There was no problem switching the return flight. However, there would be a transfer fee of $200. On top of that, the price of the one way ticket was now $150 more each way, $310 instead of $160 (one half of the original $320 ticket). Even though it was the same flight and seats were available, and even though in this day and age the switch required no more than a few seconds and a few clicks on a computer keyboard to put in place, the original one way portion of the flight, $160, would now be $160 (the original flight one way) + $150 (the increased flight one way) + $200 (the transfer fee) = $510! Or more than three times the cost of the one way portion of the flight as originally booked. Same airline. Same time of day. Same seat.
My friend asked if she could just purchase the one way ticket as a new ticket at a cost of $160 + $150 = $310, the increased cost one way, and cancel the return portion of the original flight? Yes and no, literally. She could buy the new one way ticket for $310, but she could not cancel the original return ticket. It was non-refundable. She asked if she could just get a credit of some kind for the original return ticket. Nope. So, while this “option” would only cost $310 (the new one way ticket) + $160 (forfeiture of the return portion of the original ticket) = $470 ($40 less than the only option first offered by the telephone personnel), it was still three times the original one way ticket home.
My friend couldn’t afford this increased cost. She was forced to stay with the original return date. At considerable personal prejudice.
I started wondering just what was going on here? The new flight back had plenty of seats available. The booking transaction would only take five minutes to arrange on the computer. Sure, there was telephone personnel overhead for the person on the telephone call, but the airline was already absorbing that cost, and not able to charge for it when my friend didn’t change her flight. (I wonder how long it will be until the airlines start charging to speak to them on the telephone? Shhhh, don’t give them any ideas!) Sure, there is the cost of the computer reservation system, but that cost, like the cost of the telephone personnel, are both already factored into the original ticket pricing.
There is no legitimate basis for this kind of price hike. (Gee, some might actually call it price gouging.) The true explanation, it seems to me, is that the airlines do this because, of course . . . they can. They figure, usually correctly, that . . . “They gotcha.” You need to get home, you’re out of time, and options, and they already have your original money.
Oh yeah. And there’s two other reasons they can do this to you. And me. One, because their lobbyists (the cost of whom is already factored into your and my plane tickets, and paid for by you and me) persuade our political representatives to allow this regulated industry to get away with this abuse. And two, because you and I let our political representatives get away with being lobbied (dare I say bribed?) to allow these kinds of things.
Join the discussion either by logging in just below or by signing into your favorite 160social media outlet. If you’re having trouble, please follow these instructions to guide you! Thanks!
