charge to change flight unfair-who to contact

When you book tickets online it's on you to make sure that you are choosing what you intend to choose. Every time I have booked online, I have received an immediate email confirmation. On one occasion, I accidentally chose the wrong day for a flight that I wanted. When I realized it, I immediately called the airline and they changed it for me at no charge. Of course, if some time had gone by before I called they might not have been willing to do that (and it might matter which airline it is). In your case, though you don't say how much time passed before you discovered the error, you are probably stuck with the change fee. If you don't have proof that there was an "original booking" that differed from what you ended up with, I'm afraid you are out of luck in convincing them not to charge you to change it.

If you haven't done so, call the airline and ask for a supervisor and explain what happened. Usually within 24hrs they can void a ticket, but that's not an option at this late stage. Standing by for another flight is usually only allowed for the same day, so that wouldn't be an option for you. If all else fails maybe you could dispute the charge with the airline?

Margo, Have you talked with your rabbi? Is it possible to ask for a pardon...especially since this was through no fault of your own? I have known of others who knew they would not be able to attend and were pardoned.

Each and every time an airline - any airline - has made a change in one of my already-booked flights, they have contacted me and asked if I wished to OK the change. The most common reason in my experience is that the airline is changing the departure or arrival time of the flight. I have NEVER had an airline change a booking without my OK. Forgive me, but I suspect you - or your friend - may have made an error somewhere in the booking process.

Tom, I'm a very frequent flyer and the airlines change my flights all the time. Having said that, if the change is more than 1 hour (earlier or later) I have the option of changing my ticket without additional cost. Melanie

The point is that no airline will charge you when they make a significant change to your booking, without having given you the opportunity to accept or reject the change.

.... The airline has entered into a contract with the passenger. Significant changes to the terms of the contract require the passenger's acceptance of the changed terms.

Ah yes, the airlines are required to inform us...But in 2009 when Northwest was becoming Delta, I checked our flights about a week before departure (I had NOT been notified of any changes in spite of having been emailed changes the prior 6 months or so) and discovered that our inbound flights from CDG to AMS were scheduled to arrive after the AMS to SEA flight would have departed! There weren't any seats left on any earlier flights so we ended up taking the train from CDG to AMS! Oh and by the way, I never did even try to be reimbursed since they were ff tickets anyway.

Two things to add to the earlier posts: one, I just flew back to Seattle from Hawaii on Hawaiian Air. I was suppose to fly from Honolulu to Maui to Seattle (cheaper ticket) but got an e-mail from HA saying that there was a change in plans and I would now have a 3 hour layover in Maui and asked if that was OK with me. I objected very passively saying I had a connection to make in Seattle and ended up having the airline
put me on a direct flight from Honolulu to Seattle at no charge to me. 2: I went to do an internet checkin for a flight on a NWA local flight from Vienna to Amsterdam to Seattle and could not get the checkin to work. I ended up calling the airport only to learn that NWA had cancelled our flight and moved us onto British Air to London to Seattle. I did not know about this change but was told that they had sent me an e-mail about it. If I had not tried to do the internet checkin, I would not have know until I arrived at the airport. Since the flight was cancelled there was little I could do about objecting. The real issue arose when we arrived in London and checked in for our flight to Seattle only to learn that BA had put my wife and I on separate airplanes back to Seattle. We found that unacceptable and after too many arguments with BA folks and the NWA folks and NWA home office in Minneapolis, we were put on the same airplane. Moral: flyer beware!

This is old news. I remember a number of years ago when the airline changed one of my flights so that I arrived after my connection had left and it was the same airline. I wish you luck in pursuing this. You need to be polite, but persistent. Keep trying to push it up the chain. Pam