Skift Take
There could be a trickle-down effect from the elimination of fees to corporate travel management, but it’s unlikely business passengers were front of mind when the airlines made the call.
Several U.S. carriers made a heart-warming gesture this week by abolishing charges for changing or canceling a domestic ticket.
There’s a range of caveats, of course, but overall the move is intended to rejuvenate the leisure travel market. Airlines recognize coronavirus will affect travel plans, and so passengers will need to make last-minute changes. It’s also a costly gesture, with these types of fees reportedly netting airlines billions of dollars overall in 2019.
Apart from the cost savings for passengers, which can reach $200 per amendment, it’s got some in the corporate travel management community thinking: could this catch on?
The whole topic of fees is a contentious one. In short, corporate travel agencies may want to think about ditching their own transaction fees, and instead think more about subscriptions to hedge against future downturns.
Since the refund debacle began earlier this year, many airlines swiftly waived change fees, but it’s only this week they’re saying it's goodbye for good.
“We’ve said before that we need to approach flexibility differently than this industry has in the past, and today’s announcement builds on that promise to ensure we’re offering industry-leading flexibility, space and care to our customers,” Delta CEO Ed Bastian said earlier this week.
Agents of Change
Will travel management companies decide it's time they take a similarly flexible approach as well? They should, according to AmTrav’s president, who wants to see an end to "penny pinching" an
