It was only last month that Delta earned positive headlines for the resumption of free meal service in economy on select transcontinental routes (basically New York to California). Nothing gold can stay, however: today the airline announced that it will raise, by 50 percent, fees for same-day standby/confirmed flights (from $50 to $75).
Basically, if you’re making same-day changes to your ticket — either to fly standby or to change to a different, confirmed flight — you might pay this higher fee. Why only “might”? Because the fees are waived for many elite Delta flyers (Gold, Platinum or Diamond Medallion). Everybody else will have to pay the higher fees.
This is only one in a series of fee and amenity changes coming from our biggest airlines lately. As noted, Delta only just debuted its new transcon meals — a move American soon doubled-down on. They’ll now supply flyers on those same routes with not one but two free meals, while JetBlue has added fleet-wide free wifi. And of course, all these changes obscure the biggest recent news: the addition of “basic economy” fares to all three major carriers. If it wasn’t clear, this post doesn’t apply to BE flyers, since you can’t make any changes to those tickets — even with a fee. Caveat emptor.
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