Passengers are more important than money now: three airlines in the United States have canceled the fee for changes in booking

When the COVID-19 pandemic wiped out demand for air travel starting in March, airlines responded to the crisis by allowing passengers to change flight plans without paying surcharges. But these canceled change fees were mostly temporary, but on Sunday, August 30, United announced that it would permanently waive most of the booking change fees. Writes about it CNN.

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“When we hear from customers about ways to improve their service, getting rid of this fee is often the top request,” said United CEO Scott Kirby. — After previous difficult times, airlines made difficult decisions to survive, sometimes at the expense of customer service. United Airlines will not follow the same script as we emerge from this crisis."

The airline's two main competitors, Delta Air Lines and American Airlines, soon followed suit. Both announced on Monday, August 31st that they will also permanently lower most booking change fees.

“We've said previously that we need to approach customer flexibility differently than in the past, and today's announcement builds on that. We offer the best value to our customers,” said Delta CEO Ed Bastian.

“American Express offers more flexibility and ease than ever before when your travel plans change,” said American Chief Revenue Officer Vasu Raja.

Southwest, the fourth largest airline in the United States, has never charged a change fee. Many other smaller airlines are likely to follow suit now that the Big Four, which accounts for over 80% of domestic air travel, charge no fees, industry experts say.

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“This is a huge step,” industry consultant Michael Boyd said after United's decision. “Other major airlines will have to follow suit.”

Across the industry as a whole, booking change fees generated $ 2,8 billion for airlines in 2019.

Philip Baggeili, chief credit analyst at Standard & Poor's, said this is an airline reaction to the fact that the modest air travel recovery in early summer began to slow in July. With a week left until the end of the summer travel season, they had no choice but to remove any obstacles that made people hesitant to book a ticket.

“Airlines are in a position where they are not making much profit,” said Helane Becker, an airline analyst at Cowen. “If waiving fees helps increase bookings, that’s a huge plus for them.”

Becker said the fees were particularly hard on tourists because they bought discounted tickets that couldn't be changed.

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“Airlines want to retain as much traffic as possible from people who might otherwise use Zoom and Skype,” said airline consultant Boyd.

Thus, airlines are now more dependent on tourists than ever. In the past, these tourists could be reasonably confident in their vacation travel plans or vacation schedule. But now that new quarantine rules and restrictions on movement from one state to another are being introduced, they can no longer make those specific plans.

“When times were good, airlines wanted people to think twice before canceling flights,” Becker said. “Now being able to cancel or change a booking without penalty gives people peace of mind.”

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