During the pandemic, we saw many airlines eliminate change fees on most kinds of fares. Not only does this make buying an airline ticket much less of a commitment than before, but it also means you no longer have to worry about whether you’re getting the best fare, assuming you fly that particular airline with some frequency. You can always just book a ticket, and then reprice it closer to departure if the price drops, and get a voucher for the difference.
Well, American Airlines is now trying to do something to combat the concept of rebooking tickets to save money. Fortunately it shouldn’t impact most consumers, so I find this more interesting in theory than anything else, and wonder if we could see more restrictions added in the future.
In this post:
American’s new restriction on repricing tickets
American Airlines has added a new restriction to its contract of carriage, specifically regarding prohibited ticketing practices. With American Airlines’ latest restriction, you can’t engage in “automated re-shopping” of tickets. Here’s the clause that has been added to the list of banned activities:
Automated re-shopping conducted by you or your agent, or through an authorized third party that is enabled or assisted by you or your agent
Then here’s how American defines the term “automated re-shopping,” since it’s not one that most consumers are probably familiar with:
The use of a robotic or automated process of re-booking a ticket for the same passenger and itinerary on American with the purpose of taking advantage of a reduced fare where there is no change fee payable to American for the administrative costs of the re-booking.
What does automated re-shopping mean?
This new restriction can be a bit confusing, since “automated re-shopping” isn’t really a term that was used before, at least among consumers. What practices is this really banning? The key here is that this restricts any automated process that rebooks tickets for the same itinerary without there being a change fee.
For example, when I book a ticket, I set a Google Flights price alert. If the fare changes, I’ll then receive an email informing me of that. That isn’t banned under the new rules, because the only thing that’s automated is the looking up of fares, and not the actual rebooking. Once I receive an alert from Google, I’ll just go to American’s website to rebook.
So, what is banned? Personally I wasn’t really familiar with any companies providing automated rebooking in this way, but based on doing some online searches, it appears that ITILITE, a corporate travel and expense management company, does just that. The company then takes a big cut on the fare difference, as the website claims that your company can keep up to 50% of the amount saved during rebooking.
I’m not sure if there are other similar services that American is targeting with this, or what. Maybe American is just getting ahead of the curve, because creating a script like this perhaps seems like it could otherwise be a good business model.
I’m sure American would love to crack down on people manually repricing tickets in order to save money. However, I just don’t think there’s any practical way the airline could get away with that.
Bottom line
American Airlines’ latest prohibited ticketing practice is automated re-shopping of tickets. This means that you’re not allowed to use any automated tool that rebooks your tickets without change fees in order to save money. Fortunately you can still manually reprice tickets in situations where a fare drops, as presumably there’s not much American can do to stop that.
What do you make of American’s ban on re-shopping airline tickets?
This is most likely targeted at travel agencies and more towards business travel where high volumes of tickets are done through corporate travel agencies. Many of these having automated technology for price re-shopping to capture changes fares, it is not manual checks or really for the leisure traveler market except perhaps with what Google has announced, where it could go into the general consumer space. AA probably just trying to take control, where if you...
This is most likely targeted at travel agencies and more towards business travel where high volumes of tickets are done through corporate travel agencies. Many of these having automated technology for price re-shopping to capture changes fares, it is not manual checks or really for the leisure traveler market except perhaps with what Google has announced, where it could go into the general consumer space. AA probably just trying to take control, where if you find a cheaper price later, they don`t want to be giving it to you, you pay what you agree to pay when you first booked. Not a customer friendly move at all, like a lot of what has been happening at AA the last 6mth-12mths.
I assume many of the online travel agencies for general consumers might also have these capabilities for re-shopping as well.
That makes me wonder if the 'Price Drop Protection' paid service that Expedia offers (and just checked to be sure, still offers for AA flights) uses something more sophisticated at the 'back-end' level.
Surely they do because they even offer on with Basic economy fares. Anyone knows the inner workings for that?
I think the "paid" service is just like buying life insurance.
They have all the 'big data' (the buzzword before AI?) to predict the price.
Using those data, they could easily anticipate how much price could go down, how much to charge you, and likeliness of price not dropping. Airline has nothing to do with this. Rather than betting on who's going to win the Super Bowl, you bet on your ticket price.
Now...
I think the "paid" service is just like buying life insurance.
They have all the 'big data' (the buzzword before AI?) to predict the price.
Using those data, they could easily anticipate how much price could go down, how much to charge you, and likeliness of price not dropping. Airline has nothing to do with this. Rather than betting on who's going to win the Super Bowl, you bet on your ticket price.
Now if this practice is large enough to collude with the airline, then it's a different can of worms.
One thing they could do is make it so that you can't change to be on the same flight. United does this, when you go to change your flight it shows the flight you're already on as unavailable to change to. That was enough to discourage me (granted, where the refund would have been small) because I didn't want to risk canceling the whole ticket and that fare disappearing in the interim
In China, there is software that works with an agency’s GDS to automatically rebook for a lower price. The largest platform in China is CTrip and it works like Amazon in that retail travel agents put their prices on CTrip and because of competition, they make zero money at the time of ticketing. The agents are taking the risk that they will be able to use this automation to find a lower fare, reissue the...
In China, there is software that works with an agency’s GDS to automatically rebook for a lower price. The largest platform in China is CTrip and it works like Amazon in that retail travel agents put their prices on CTrip and because of competition, they make zero money at the time of ticketing. The agents are taking the risk that they will be able to use this automation to find a lower fare, reissue the ticket and keep the difference as their profit. Lots of risk in this game for the agents and it’s disrupting the selling price that AA and other airlines want to control. The consumer is not benefiting from this practice.
Try getting credit for a lower non-refundable fare with United. It hasn't been possible for several years.
Whose going to write a ChatGPT script us to do this?
They could bring change fees back. problem solved.
Lol just set up the CAT31 to ‘change only for equal or higher.
Problem solved!!!
Dunno how much they paid AA people to come up with that ‘new regulation’.
And all you guys commenting here have no clue how ATPCo works;)
WOW!
So tell me with those CAT31 restrictions, how does the airline manage the residual value of a cancelled ticket without creating a whole new system to support it?
How about partially flown?
You solved one problem by creating other problems.
You think you're better than many smart AA dinosaurs, why not get a job offer there. Be careful, dinosaurs do bite back.
First, I don’t need a job there as I have a job with 43 days pto + 10 public holiday for example. AA has that? Or even the USA? Yeah yeah socialist Europe, lol
Second when you talk about cancellations that is CAT33.
In this case if it’s voluntary cancellation depends on the refund rule coded.
If it’s a non ref then you see zero $.
If it’s a ref with penalty...
First, I don’t need a job there as I have a job with 43 days pto + 10 public holiday for example. AA has that? Or even the USA? Yeah yeah socialist Europe, lol
Second when you talk about cancellations that is CAT33.
In this case if it’s voluntary cancellation depends on the refund rule coded.
If it’s a non ref then you see zero $.
If it’s a ref with penalty you get part of it. If it’s full ref then you get the money.
Any one there is no rebooking as it’s a cancellation.
So yeah there are hassle free solutions… you welcome :)
No I'm not talking about cancellations.
I'm talking about what capitalist USA is doing with no change fee.
CAT33 is cancellation for a REFUND.
Here in America, you can CHANGE your ticket with no FEES on a NON-REFUNDABLE ticket. Hence the automated re pricing, the core topic of this post.
If you apply CAT33, the money goes away from the ticket.
If you put your restriction in CAT31 the money becomes...
No I'm not talking about cancellations.
I'm talking about what capitalist USA is doing with no change fee.
CAT33 is cancellation for a REFUND.
Here in America, you can CHANGE your ticket with no FEES on a NON-REFUNDABLE ticket. Hence the automated re pricing, the core topic of this post.
If you apply CAT33, the money goes away from the ticket.
If you put your restriction in CAT31 the money becomes ZERO left on the ticket.
Rather than having money removed from the ticket, which airlines then need a new system to capture the NON-REFUNDABLE money to use for future flights. The airline would 'change' the ticket to blank while keeping the money attached to the ticket.
If you still don't get it, here's an example.
I book a NON REFUNDABLE $100 for AAA-BBB for July. I cancel AAA-BBB.
I cannot get a refund for $100 but I can use that $100 to book XXX-YYY.
So tell me what is a better solution?
No, he doesn't get it. Inferiority complex numbs the brain.
Hello @Nb are you still here?
Still waiting for your "hassle free solutions".
Or you too busy enjoying your 43 days pto.
Which I forgot to ask you, because the only place I heard that have that many pto is Murmansk.
So when you say socialist Europe, did you mean socialist Russia aka. Marxist Soviet Union?
Solving IT problems using hammer and sickle.
In your exemple if you say ‘cancel’ that is a refund. ‘Change’ is something else.
Now if AA is allowing you to ‘cancel’ a non ref ticket and get a credit then they are simply stupid, lol.
And the reason I say they are stupid is because afterwards they add limitations to control the damage as stated in this article :)
WTF!!!!
"And the reason I say they are stupid is because afterwards they add limitations to control the damage as stated in this article :)"
Isn't that why you suggested CAT31?
First you're suggesting a solution that doesn't solve the problem.
Then you calling AA for being stupid and their solution that solves the problem is a damage control?
"Now if AA is allowing you to ‘cancel’ a non ref ticket...
WTF!!!!
"And the reason I say they are stupid is because afterwards they add limitations to control the damage as stated in this article :)"
Isn't that why you suggested CAT31?
First you're suggesting a solution that doesn't solve the problem.
Then you calling AA for being stupid and their solution that solves the problem is a damage control?
"Now if AA is allowing you to ‘cancel’ a non ref ticket and get a credit then they are simply stupid, lol."
Simply stupid applies to AA AS B6 DL WN UA aka. all the major US carrier, of them the largest carrier in the world is stupid?
So not only your CAT31 solution doesn't solve the problem, you're suggesting every major US carrier is stupid. @Tim Dunn and @DCS will have a lot to lecture you.
You don't even deserve hammer and sickle. Maybe a comedian stuck in a high-school teacher persona taking it too far.
:)
It’s very easy to do this manually. Rental cars can be done that way as well as can hotel rooms, if there’s no cancellation fee. That said, dynamic pricing should work both ways. Why shouldn’t I get some money if prices come down, and there’s less demand for a flight?
I completely agree, Alex - if the price of a ticket I bought in January for a July flight goes down in May, the airline should alert me to the possibility of reticketing at the lower price- especially since the primary reason I bought early was to take advantage of what is usually the price advantage of booking early.
These days, a price drop closer to the departure date is an indication that the revenue...
I completely agree, Alex - if the price of a ticket I bought in January for a July flight goes down in May, the airline should alert me to the possibility of reticketing at the lower price- especially since the primary reason I bought early was to take advantage of what is usually the price advantage of booking early.
These days, a price drop closer to the departure date is an indication that the revenue generation algorithms are showing that the flight is underbooked and demand will be driven up by lower prices.
Why should someone who booked early be taken advantage of for committing early? They should have the benefit of the "truer" cost for the flight.
So American Airlines can adjust the ticket price in real time based on the demand but consumers on the other end of this transaction can't use technology. Capitalism at it's worst !!!
We're living in the world that 'they' are feeding you propaganda and people actually buy it. (sad)
Wake up to reality, not what 'they' want you to get 'woke' about.
But just a few days ago, some brainwashed person told me in another post that we have freedom and the free market. And either fairness or freedom is non sequitur.
The slippery slope begins…
THIS.
The parasites seeking to game the system ruin things for everyone.
@Bobo Bolinski
You mean the airline who rigged the system?
AMEX Corporate Travel just introduced that for the company I work for. I'll be interested to see if it has to back track (at least for American). I have no control over it doing that process either.
Or they should just introduce price drop guarantee while booking for free or with a minimal fee and promise customers the fare difference will be refunded(or returned as flight credits) in the event of a price drop before the travel day. This way they can get people to book without having to wait for price drop and also make some money in case they go with a fee based add-on servive.
We have a winner!!!
Someone who understands how to embrace technological changes.
The best part of this that you didn't mention, their RM can rig the whole system by themselves.
One thing that AA could do to make rebooking less attractive is make flight credits only applicable to the passenger who was rebooked instead of allowing them to be used by anyone. That's what Delta does.
You have a misunderstand.. Flight credits can only be used by/for the name of the ticketed pax for new travel. Trip credits can be used by anyone with the tc number and pax last name.
Capital One Travel does a similar thing, although obviously I don't know how the back end works. I had tickets booked in Argentina (using Cap One miles) and just randomly got an email one day that the fare had dropped and I was getting 12k miles back.
I was thinking of Capital One as well - I booked a cash flight on AA through the Cap One travel portal, and automatically got some money back (I think $80 or so) when the price later dropped. Is this an automated re-shopping service?
BCD travel does this for corporate T&E programs. Called FairFly.
hmmm, I booked a work flight and got an email the next day saying they had rebooked me at a lower rate saving $100, so perhaps this is a thing. PITA if it results in the return of change fees
There are people who resist technological changes and people who embrace them.
Just like the notorious AA corporate security team.
Bigger issue not address here is the no change fee trend that could be gone in a few years.
Or maybe the industry strike gold and have way too many speculative bookings which drive prices this summer insane, while those refunded credits will eventually expire unused at the end of the year. Could explain Southwest's best kept secret.