It has taken the pandemic and the worldwide reticence of people to travel again, to get airlines to waive those change fees as a means to encourage us back on board. As the pandemic spread and bookings were cancelled, most airlines quickly understood the need to waive fees in order to try to keep the passenger booking even if it meant they delayed the trip for weeks or months. Now many airlines are continuing to waive those fees, with some even allowing a change of destination should quarantines and lockdowns mean plans are altered.
A number of low cost carriers, for whom the income derived from these extras was their lifeblood, are offering free changes at least for the next few months. Ryanair has continued their waiving of change fees through Sep-2020. easyJet are waiving their flight change fee for changes made up to 14 days before travel. Southwest Airlines on the other hand has never charged a fee to change flights, and don't charge for checked bags either so were already ahead of the game.
United Airlines has gone a step further and announced that they will be including free ticket changes permanently on all standard economy and premium economy tickets for travel within the US. They are also offering all passengers the ability to standby for free on a flight departing on the same day as their original ticket, regardless of their ticket type.
Of course if the change in date or destination means a change to the fare then you will still be charged for that difference, but having the flexibility to be able to delay your flight should circumstances dictate can only help with passenger confidence.
Other airlines are going further and offering free Covid-19 insurance. Emirates Airline was the first to offer this in Jul-2020 for trips up to 31 days ahead and now Virgin Atlantic is also including the insurance as standard with all tickets with no upper limit as to length of travel. The insurance becomes valid as soon as you take your first flight.
For Emirates the insurance is included for flights until 31-Oct-2020. Virgin Atlantic is offering their insurance until 31-Mar-2021 regardless of whether a trip has been completed or not. In both cases the insurance includes emergency medical expenses and expenses incurred because of being denied boarding due to a positive Covid-19 result for any of your party. If you need to quarantine for up to 14 days because of a positive result the airline insurance will cover a certain level of expenses per day.
These insurances are for your personal medical expenses so do not cover claims relating to a country or regional quarantine, so won't help if you go on a trip and the country gets put on a red list meaning you need to quarantine on your return. Both airlines are offering the insurance with all tickets so no additional purchase is required, with the insurance designed to run in parallel to other travel insurance, which largely exclude Covid-19 from their policies.
Another form of flexibility is being offered by JetBlue who have teamed up with MarcusPay to offer customers the flexibility of paying for flights and holidays by instalments. Applicable on bookings of USD750 and more, there is no deposit required and the initial payment is not due until a month after booking. With no fees and a fixed rate the payment option can help pay for a trip without the heavy up front costs.
Some airlines have set a deadline for their offer of free ticket changes. Initially the offers were just for a few months at the start of the pandemic, but now have been extended to the end of Sep-2020, Dec-2020 or even to Mar-2021 in some cases. However it remains to be seen if those dates are extended again. Perhaps more will take a leaf out of Southwest and United's book and get rid of the change fees forever.