United Airlines and US Air have just announced an increase to their change fee to $200. United's spokesman stated that ""We carefully manage our seat inventory and incur costs when a traveler elects not to fly in a reserved seat. We adjusted this fee to better compensate us for those costs."
This fee is exorbitant and should be reduced to better reflect their actual costs. If the change occurs early enough for the airline to be able to resell the seat, then there should be no cost incurred. I propose a reasonable fee be allowed, no more than $100 for changes within 14 days of travel, and no fee be charged for changes earlier than that.