Are the Major Airlines Finally Focusing on Their Customers?

Are the major U.S. airlines finally becoming a little more customer-centric?

For years, American, United, and Delta have degraded their basic product by cutting services and adding fees for things that were previously included. Baggage fees, change fees, paid snacks and meals, and ever-tighter seating diminished a customer experience already impacted by airport security measures. Even as they earned record profits, they failed to take concrete steps to improve the experience of ordinary flyers.

United Bets First

United took a tentative first step away from those practices by eliminating change fees a couple of days ago. Not only can flyers now change almost all existing reservations without a fee, they can also stand by for earlier same-day flights without penalty.

This policy change is a bigger deal than it might seem to be. According to Forbes contributor Will Horton, United earned $625 million in change fee revenue last year. Just about all of that dropped to the bottom line.

Delta Sees, American Raises

At Forbes, I suggested the optimistic view that customer experience could be a new battleground for the major airlines. I was happy to see that later that day, both Delta and American followed United's lead by matching their change fee elimination.

I was even happier to see that American went beyond United's changes and said they would credit flyers if their new flight had a lower ticket price. In the past, travelers would have to pay if the new flight was more expensive but would get no benefit from a cheaper one.

All airlines are suffering from a dramatic drop in air travel due to the pandemic. Now seems like an odd time to be giving up a revenue stream, but the changes may make flyers more willing to book flights in uncertain times. The changes have been announced as "permanent," though even fixed policies change over time.

Is This the End or the Beginning?

Has the race to the bottom ended? After years of striving to offer the cheapest prices, will the big carriers start to compete on service and overall customer experience? Or is eliminating hated change fees a short-term fix for pandemic-induced uncertainty? What's the most annoying part of your flying experience that the airlines could fix? Leave your thoughts in a comment - who knows, maybe an airline CEO might read it!