kyle051777@aol.com wrote:
>
> Will you please tell me where in my fare rules it says "If you change
> your flight we are going to charge you MORE than what you can get the
> same ticket for on another airline.
Please tell me where in your state's motor vehicle code it states the
fines for speeding might be more than you would pay in another state, so
you should go there and speed. The fares rules state you pay the
change fee and whatever fare is currently available. Forget about your
changing flights. An airline having a higher available fare than
another is not unusual. When booked far in advance, other airline's are
competitive with Southwest's fares. Close to travel time, WN's fares
are generally lower than most carriers. Between those time periods, it
often occurs that WN's available fare is than other carriers, due to
people buying up the cheapest seats more quickly on WN, because of the
general feeling that WN is ALWAYS cheaper.
The bottom line is you bought a ticket with restrictions. One of those
restrictions is that changes require a $100 fee, plus you have to pay
the price difference based on the currently available fare. That is why
you got the discount you got. If you don't want those restrictions, buy
a different fare or chose a different carrier, like WN. Such charges on
the legacy carriers are pertty standard. You were offered a voucher,
because they probably were tired of listening to you. A voucher is
normally not offered in such cases, as it defeats the purpose of the
$100 change fee. Airlines have to have some methodology for charging
different prices. If the tickets gave the same benefits, how could they
charge more for the same seats? Let's say the costs of transporting a
passenger from point A to point B averages $100 per person. On a plane
of 100, that's a need for $10000 to break even. What happens if you
can't find 100 people that want to pay $100 for the flight.
Well, if you can find 50 people willing to pay $150, because they MUST
fly (business traveler, last minute vacationer), then it would be easier
to find 50 more people willing to pay $50. A mixture of fares permits
the airline to maximize revenue. If they tried to charge everyone $100,
and only 50 people wanted to pay $100, then they would lose money.
Obviously, the people paying $150 expect something for paying 3 times as
much as the $50 people. The airline needs to charge the $50 for
changes, because it wants to encourage them to buy more $150 tickets.
Unfortunately, the model falters when not enough people will pay enough
to cover the cost of the flights, like now.
|
