US Air's ticket exchange policy is cleverly rigged against the customer and to the benefit of US Air.
It's clever because unless you're a lawyer who spends his days reading the fine print of purchase agreements, you won't know in advance that you're going to be ripped off. Follow the calculations below carefully because you could be their next victim.
I purchased a "nonrefundable" $600 ticket for a flight that I later had to reschedule. Of course, I knew about the $150 "change fee" when I made the new reservation.
The new reservation cost $400. So naturally I expected to pay $400 plus the $150 change fee and for US Air to credit me for the $600 nonrefundable ticket I bought earlier.in other words, US Air would credit my account $50. The calculation is: New Ticket ($400) Change Fee ($150) - Old Ticket ($600) = $50. Right?
Wrong! Instead, US Air refused to credit the full $600 I earlier spent. Rather, they only credited the cost of the new ticket, $400. So I ended up paying $750 for a flight advertised at $400. Their calculation is Old Ticket ($600) Change Fee ($150) = $750. They don't care that the new ticket costs less than the old one.
So here's what going on:
When you buy a new ticket that costs more than the old one, US Air charges you a $150 change fee plus the amount by which your new ticket costs more than the old one. That is, if your old ticket costs $600 and the new one costs $1,000, you're going to be billed $550. The calculation is New Ticket ($1,000) - Old Ticket ($600) Change Fee ($150) = $550.
But when you buy a new ticket that costs less than the old one, US Air charges you the full price of the old ticket anyway. You get no credit for the fact that the new ticket costs less than the old one.
So, with US Air it's heads you lose, tails US Air wins. They can count me out of this ripoff game.
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