Change fees, the ultimate victim of COVID?

With COVID, the airlines have, for a time at least, changed many of their practices, for better or worse.

For the worst, and it is not necessary to come back on the subject, a degradation of the quality of service which sometimes goes well beyond what is necessary to respect the sanitary rules.

For the best, the end of change/cancellation fees on tickets.

An emergency solution that will last for a long time

At the beginning of the epidemic we saw mass cancellations of flights, passengers forbidden to enter this or that country to arrive at an almost total closure of the sky.

Acting in a hurry and most often to avoid having to refund tickets (at least before obtaining a rescue plan), the airlines have largely eliminated change and cancellation fees. In times of high unpredictability, it was necessary to reassure the passenger that he could use his ticket as he wished when the situation returned to normal instead of asking for a refund.

And as long as it was still possible to fly a little, this was intended to remove any disincentive to buy: even if the situation worsens, the passenger doesn’t have to worry about losing his ticket if he is unable to travel.

Now that we are in the recovery phase, even if laborious, more and more airlines have decided to remove all change/cancellation fees.

Flexible ticketing becomes the norm

From now on, Air France tickets are 100% flexible with no modification or cancellation fees. Lufthansa offers the same thing except that the German airline only allows changes and does not refund if the cancellation is not their fault, in which case you can only get a voucher.

There are no change fees with Delta either, except in the “basic economy” cabin and on long-haul international flights. We are talking about modification, it does not seem possible to be refunded unlike Air France.

The same applies to United for domestic flights in standard or premium economy.

The same applies to American Airlines for domestic and international medium-haul flights, with the exception of basic economy.

A measure that will last but not forever

Many are now wondering if the coronavirus has definitely killed the modification fee. On peut rêver mais c’est très improbable.

Ticket flexibility is a key element of airline pricing policies. In other words, flexibility brings a lot of value to the airlines from passengers who need it and are willing to pay a lot for it.

It is more than unlikely that they will give it up once the situation is less turbulent, they have too much to lose.

However, at the rate things are going, the situation may remain unclear for a long time…

Photo : flight ticket by ADragan via Shutterstock