I’m looking for info for the better half. Apparently, where she works, business flight plans get changed with some regularity, and many costs are incurred. She’s looking to cut that down a bit and asked for help from the TM[sup]TM[/sup]. So anyone know of any good airlines or travel sites that don’t charge much for changing itineraries?
The travel sites themselves don’t have much to do with it – they’re paid a commission by the airline or charge a flat fee to handle the transaction, after which it’s up to you and the airline.
The real costs are the ones imposed by the airlines for changing itineraries on non-refundable tickets. All deeply discounted fares are non-refundable, but what the actual costs to change are depend on the airline’s policies and several other factors. The most common practice is to charge a change fee, plus any applicable change in fare – if you book a month ahead of time and change your mind two days before the flight, it’s likely that the only fares available when you change will be significantly higher, and you’ll end up paying the difference. Unfortunately, there’s no easy way to handle this – you just have to consider each trip based on the airlines that serve the destination, the fares they have available, their change policies, etc.
I’ve generally avoided booking until the plans for the trip are solid – I’m a consultant, and my practice was to hold off on booking until the statement of work for the engagement was signed off on by the client, and I had at least an e-mail confirmation from the client of the dates they expected me to to be there. That sometimes meant the client ended up paying a higher fare (all of my expenses are billed back to the client), but I’ve always tried to make sure they understood well ahead of time that delay on the commitment was likely to cost them money. Nevertheless, changes do sometimes happen, and I try to factor the likelihood of that into what airline/fare class I purchase.
Flying out of Atlanta, most of my trips are on either Delta or AirTran. On Delta, there’s a $50 change fee, plus difference in fare, on anything cheaper than the full coach fare (Y fare class). However, as a SkyMiles Medallion member, I can change to another flight on the same day as my original flight without charge, provided there’s available seats. On AirTran, there’s a $60 change fee, plus difference in fare, for all coach fares. However, AirTran’s Business Class, which is generally much less expensive than First Class on Delta, is fully refundable and can be changed without any fees. So if I think the itinerary is subject to change, but only on the same day, I’d generally book a discount coach fare on Delta. If I think the dates of the trip have a signficant likelihood of changing, and AirTran serves the destination, I’ll take a look at the price difference between discount coach on Delta and Business Class on AirTran. If there’s much uncertainty, even paying a couple hundred more for Business Class on AirTran may be the right choice, because changing dates on Delta might (and has) cost me several hundred dollars more (I think $850 is the highest fare difference I’ve seen, but $300-$400 is not uncommon).
For example, looking at an Atlanta-Newark trip for next month, leaving 2/12 returning 2/16, here’s the options: $119 on AirTran for a non-refundable discount coach seat, $198 on Delta for a non-refundable discount coach seat (“U” fare class). The only refundable/changeable option on Delta is $698 for an “A” fare, which is fully refundable and automatically upgrades to First if there are seats available in First at time of purchase. AirTran’s Business Class fare is $329, and I can change that to any other date or time at will. If I’m sure there’ll be no changes, I’d probably book the U fare on Delta (prefer to consolidate my miles on Delta to keep my Medallion status up, and the price difference from AirTran is less than $100). But if I think I may have to change dates, I’d go ahead and book in AirTran’s Business Class – it’s less than $150 over Delta’s U fare, and I know that’s the absolute maximum it’s going to cost. If I go with the U fare on Delta, and have to change close to the departure date, the fare difference plus the change fee could easily be double that or more.
I always book my bosses on Southwest whenever possible. They have the most reasonable and fair change policies. IIRC, they only charge the difference in fare. That could be because my guys are frequent fliers.
I also only use Travelocity and the like to get a quick idea of how much fares are and then book directly from the airline’s site when possible. Travelocity in particular SUCKS when dealing with changes.
But, moreover, if I know my boss’s flights are quite likely to change, I compare the refundable price against the cost of changing a non-refundable fare. Generally, if the refundable fare is within $200-$300 of a non-refundable, I’ll book it at the refundable fare. Many, many times it ends up being cheaper that way.
The other issue with Travelocity, Orbitz, et al. is that you don’t necessarily see the lowest fares, at least not without some digging, and certainly not as the first option. They make their money both from commissions and from paid placement by the airlines, hotels, etc. For checking fares, flight times, etc., I generally use ITA Software’s Matrix site, which doesn’t take ads and shows you all the options with no funny business. You can set up the searches any of several different ways (including finding the lowest fares available for a given 30-day period, or finding the cheapest weekend fares in a given 30-day period, and searching with departure/return +/- one day from the specified dates), and the graphical display option for the results is a godsend for figuring out the best option if you need to leave/arrive at a particular time. It also includes warnings for long layovers, overnight flights, and turboprop flights. You can’t actually buy tickets – it’s strictly an information source – but once you’ve found an itinerary you can e-mail it to a travel agent with all the info they need to book it exactly as you’ve specified.
That is awesome, rackensack. Thanks for the tip!