Mile-High Mugging

I apologise in advance for the blog post that you are about to read as I fear it may turn into a bit of a rant. However, as The Husband is refusing to do his job as ‘ear to all and sunder for which his wife wishes to impart’, I have no other medium. I have just changed my flight back from Hong Kong in the new year as I will now be working as blogger for a tennis tournament that ends a few days after my original flight leaves the country. I phoned up and was delighted to hear that the flight I wanted to change to was exactly the same price as my original one. Now, I’m not stupid, I knew that the airline would charge some sort of an admin fee. What I was not expecting was it to cost $136! How can it possibly cost that much to take someone off the list of one flight and put them on another. It was an online booking so it’s not even as if they have to print out another paper ticket, they just need to change some details on an e-ticket.


It’s crazy what some of these airlines think they can get away with but of course that’s just it – they can get away with it because you don’t have much choice, especially as they all seem to be about as bad as each other. UK and US governments are now cracking down on unfair bank charges but maybe they need to look at the exorbitant amount airlines are charging its customers. There’s no doubt about it – Qantas are actually making money out of changing my flight for me. They’ve turned flight change requests into a profitable business . You’d have thought that in this time of economic uncertainty, when less people are forking out the money to take overseas holidays, airlines would be doing everything in their power to reduce the cost of air travel and inspire loyalty in their customers. Perhaps that’s exactly the issue, though – the airlines are making less money these days so need to make some extra cash any way they can. What with this airline’s recent bad press regarding near mid-air disasters, you’d have thought they might be wanting to keep me as a loyal customer rather than mugging me for my money. This Expat Wife is not impressed.