Changing an American Airlines ticket could be fun. I need new hobbies.
I like how airlines have eliminated change fees.
Most major airlines in the United States stopped charging change fees permanently around the start of the epidemic. Different airlines have different policies, there are some exclusions, and who really knows what permanent means in this context.
I just wanted to stop and appreciate how great this is. Southwest Airlines customers have been enjoying this for a long time, but for the rest of us, it's exciting.
Since the start of the Pandemic, the process of planning travel has become simpler. I can make a booking if I think I can take a trip, which will allow me to lock in flights at the best price, secure upgrades and good seats.
I used to have to make a $200 gamble when booking a ticket back in the day, now that I have gotten used to it. The ability to rebook your flight when the price drops is another benefit of no change fees.
US airlines have eliminated change fees.
It's kind of thrilling to reprice tickets.
Most of my flights have been booked last minute, so I haven't been able to take advantage of fare drops. When I book a ticket on an airline with no change fees, I always go to Google Flights and set a price alert so that I receive an email if the price goes up or down.
That finally paid off. The price for an upcoming American itinerary had dropped by $80. I could get an $80 voucher towards a future flight if there were no change fees. Wow!
I am not sure if I went through the rebooking process in the most efficient way. It would have been simpler if I had just called up American and asked for a reprice of the itinerary. I naively thought I could do this all online. Not much.
The ticket change function didn't allow me to price exactly the same flights, but it did allow me to choose different flights.
I canceled my ticket and tried to book a new ticket, but there was no way to apply the ticket credit, unless I missed something.
I placed the itinerary on hold, and then called American, but the call took about 15 minutes, as the agent had to contact the ticketing desk to apply the voucher since Ford and I were on the same record, so it seems that this isn't something that even a reservations agent can
After that, both Ford and I were issued $80 credits, so that was an easy $160 in future ticket credits on American.
Travel credits from repricing flights!
I am not sure if I missed an easy way to reprice tickets, so if anyone has any suggestions, please let me know.
I got a real thrill out of being able to reprice tickets, beyond what I got, and that's one thing. It was nice to have the airline give me a credit for something like this, for the first time, though it may be related to the change fees I have to pay American over the years.
The bottom line.
Legacy carriers in the United States have eliminated change fees on most tickets. This has completely changed the way I plan travel and has taken the stress out of the process of booking flights, and on top of that it is also fun to reprice tickets.
If the price changes you will be contacted. There is a lot of potential here because of theAirfare tends to fluctuate.
After airlines take advantage of us with change fees for so long, anyone else gets a thrill out of repricing flights? Is there an easier rebooking option that I missed?
