Triangle Trip

Did to know that you can get a full refund on an airline ticket if you booked it on the airline’s website if you cancel within 24 hours of the purchase?

Not many airlines disclose this information because they do not want you to cancel or change your mind after booking your airline ticket – but it’s true. If you booked a ticket on a major US commercial airline such as Delta, JetBlue, United, Virgin America, etc., you can cancel your ticket within 24 hours of booking the ticket without penalty.

However, you’ll need to have made the reservation on the airline’s website. If you’ve changed your mind, or found a better deal after booking your flight, just pick up the phone and ring the airline for a full refund of your ticket – regardless of ticket class (full fare and discounted are eligible). Your refund will be processed via credit card.

Ticket brokers and travel sites such as Expedia, Travelocity, etc., do not allow you to cancel or change your flight as they are generally matching you up on different one-way fares for the best deal.

Most US airlines have raised ticket change fees which make non-refundable tickets worthless. I had a USAir discounted non-refundable ticket for $198 but had to cancel the flight for personal reasons. After being routed to two India call centers, I was told that a credit will be issued under my name and I had one year to use it. The credit is not transferable and it will be worthless after one year from the date of issuance. Finally, the USAir call center rep told me that there will be a $150 change fee if I want to re-use my $198 credit for another flight.

After hearing the call center reading all the rules from his screen aloud to me for close to 2 minutes, I asked myself the following question:  “What is the point of issuing me a $198 credit, then take $150 away on my next booking. Why doesn’t USAir just tell me that I have $48 of credit to use for another USAir flight?”

At first I thought the $150 change fee was steep, then I learned UAL has recently up their fees as well. Ghetto Delta has always charged $150 for their itinerary change fee but now they are charging $250 for international change fees (check their ticketing FAQ).

Here’s what I have learned from this experience:

1.  If you see a cheap airfare and clicked on the “SUBMIT” button on a website, you better travel on those dates and times or your ticket will be worthless.

2.  Buy a refundable ticket or wait until a week before you are planning to take off if your plans are still influx

Airlines are obviously using change fees as an alternative way to get more revenue and stick it to its customers.

There are four airlines (American, Delta, United, Virgin) that operate nonstop flights between New York JFK and Los Angeles LAX. Each airline has six round trip flights per day out of each airport. This means there are 24 flights per day from JFK to LAX. Assuming each flight can carry around 200 passengers which means there are 4,800 available seats from JFK to LAX. Do we really need that many flights each day between the two cities?

The number gets bigger if you include the Greater NYC and Los Angeles areas. Continental which flies out of Newark has about eight nonstops to LAX, Burbank and Long Beach. Jetblue has four nonstops from JFK to Long Beach and Burbank. This means there are 36 flights a day with 7,200 available seats everyday from the Greater NYC to Los Angeles area.

The among of flights between the two metro areas are way too excessive. This is one of many excess and waste we have in America which is part of the reason we are in a recession. Just like having too many Starbucks on one street, too many Citibanks in a two block radius, we have too many airlines flying half empty planes coast to coast. I can see the demand for the flights during peak travel season and peak travel days such as Mondays, Thursdays, Fridays and Sundays. I highly doubt the Tuesday, Wednesday and Saturday flights are full.

For the record, the same airlines have similar among of flights between the Greater New York area and the Bay area (San Francisco, Oakland and San Jose). Also keep in mine that my statistics are only for NON-STOP flights. There are 200 more options if you decide to connect or use multiple carriers. Below is a simple search result from Kayak with a three week advance purchase search:

Kayak Search Result (JFK-LAX)

As a frequent coast to coast traveler, I have been on many half empty plane for the past month flying out on Monday mornings and Thursday evenings (which are peak travel times). Perhaps this is why my round trip tickets has not been more than $400 when I bought it 24 hours before the flight. This week’s round trip JFK/LAX ticket was $210 which was purchased 5 days in advanced. Competition driving prices down is capitalism at its best. I have benefited as a consumer. However we all should know that these airlines aren’t money on these flights. Here’s a link to a WSJ article (March 12, 2009) about fuel-hedging loses are impacting Cathay, Delta, etc. Eventually the airlines will go to the government to ask for money.

Government needs to step in to manage the airline industry or we will see another bail out request situation – which already happened once if you recalled post September 11. The previous bail out also drove every single major airline to bankruptcy. I may sound like a socialist but I rather be a socialist than paying for it like we are funding Wall Street and Detroit. I don’t want President Obama the US to appoint me as the Airline Czar to manage the bailout funds when he decides to distribute funds for airline failures. The airline industry needs government intervention now.