Change Your Plane Ticket? $100, Please

What travel cost is going up 100% in a little more than three years? It’s the fee to make changes in your “nonrefundable” airline ticket.

On Jan. 19, Continental raised the so-called change fee to $100 per ticket, a $25 increase, for travel in the U.S. and other areas of the Western Hemisphere. It last raised the fee, charged for changing itineraries or canceling discounted tickets favored by leisure travelers, from $50 on Oct. 30, 1997. The airline’s fee for changes on tickets to Europe remains $100, said spokeswoman Sarah Anthony.

Last week, American Airlines raised its change fee from $75 to $90, but other major airlines such as United and Delta were still generally charging $75.

Anthony said Continental raised the fee to “make it commensurate with the service provided” and to “cover revenue loss associated with unused inventory” when seats are held for customers. Ironically, the airline simultaneously cut commissions to travel agents who change customers’ tickets, from $25 to $15 per ticket.

Also last week, the Air Transport Assn. reported that the average price for a one-way, 1,000-mile U.S. airline ticket in coach rose 6.6% last year, to $130.28, while the average first-class ticket dropped 6.3% to $250 in 2000. The group represents 23 U.S. and five international passenger and cargo carriers.