What if you have to re-schedule your travel while in the middle of it?  Any regular flier dreads any changes to their flight schedules before leaving on their trip but needing to make a change in the middle of a trip is positively terrifying.

But should it be?  Perhaps not.  Legacy airlines are charging exorbitant fees to change flights with some reaching $150 just for the privilege of ringing the airline and asking to return a day later or two days earlier.   On American Airlines (and most legacy airlines are similar), if you change your ticket, you’ll be liable for the new one way fare plus a change fee ($150 in most cases for domestic travel) which, if you bought a non-refundable advance fare, could be exorbitant.    But you do you have options if you are willing to work a bit.

Recently, a friend traveled to the Northeastern US for Thanksgiving.  While visiting family, one of his parents was injured and he decided he should stay over a while longer to help out.  Changing his ticket cost him a small fortune and, unfortunately, he didn’t think to look outside the box.   If he had abandoned that ticket and simply shopped for a new ticket on Airtran, jetBlue or even Southwest Airlines, he would have saved hundreds of dollars.  Ironically, there were sudden last minute fare sales for immediate travel instituted on the very day he chose re-ticket.  

Flexibility, as always, is the key.  Yes, you may have to accept 1 or more connections or even explore ticketing on two different airlines but the savings is often far greater than what your time is worth.  If you feel intimdated by having to do battle with the airlines or pressured by the need to resolve the issue quickly, I highly recommend trying the Cranky Concierge service that I’ve blogged about HERE.    Airline geeks are creative thinkers and the fee you’ll pay Cranky for thinking for you will be paid for in huge savings in most cases.    What could take you 3 or 4 hours to explore (even if you’re relatively sophisticated at searching for airline fares) can be solved by someone like him in a matter of an hour or less in many cases.

Filed under: Travel Hints by ajax
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