Any airline mileage program that doesn't charge to change flights?

Southwest still doesn’t. They’ll charge you if the ticket prices are different, naturally, but no charge to initiate the change. A friend of mine missed his flight home once, changed the flight a half hour before it was scheduled to leave, and ended up getting a rebate because the flight he changed to was cheaper.

I was going to say I think Southwest still doesn’t, and now seeing @BhacSsylan‘s answer I guess it is true.

Several airlines give you 24 hours from when you book the flight to change or cancel with no fee. Delta I know has this policy, I’m not 100% sure which others do it. But, that wouldn’t help in your particular situation.

$75 actually isn’t bad. Some airlines are as high as $15, which I think is ridiculous.

Southwest is the only airline I’m aware of that doesn’t charge a change fee. They charge the fair difference between what you booked and what the latest rates are for the new flight you want. The closer you get to the new flight the higher their rates get, so it can still be expensive to change if you do it at the last minute. I remember the good old days of flying when the airlines didn’t charge fees for this. As a business traveler I miss that…

thanks all. I wasn’t talking about a regular ticket, but a ticket you get from points. I expect to be charged a fee when I change a normal ticket, but this was a free ticket, and it used to be that these tickets could be changed without a fee. Then they made it that you did get a fee, but only if you did it 21 days or closer to when you left. Now if seems that any time you change your ticket, you have to pay a fee. Which makes it as rigid as a regular ticket. I was wondering about other mileage plans, and if those are now all the same.
The 24 hour change is available on all airlines, it’s a law I think.
It;s probably all the same—they change in concert.

I have Alaska points from my credit card. A couple of years ago when I had infinite points, I decided to use them to go to Tahiti from Seattle. I used up all my points. I had to use Alaska’s partner airline, Air France. Air France is very luxe, so I was happy. BUT. Air France has a policy that when you use airmiles to buy your ticket, they will only sell you a first class ticket. First class from Seattle to Tahiti???????? Okay. I had the miles. So I did it. BUT. On the way back, they gave me a tourist class seat. Eight unrelenting hours, crowded. I asked about this later. Oh, they said, we didn’t have enough first class seats for you. But, I said, I paid for one. No you didn’t, they said. You didn’t pay anything! Your seat was free! No, it wasn’t, I said, I earned that, and it was your policy that assigned me a first class seat at a vast extra expense and I want a rebate. Nope.

Read the fine fucking print, people. Or, actually, since none of this is written anywhere, use a travel agent – it’s worth paying someone who can interpret this bullshit.

Hmm, that is a little trickier, sorry for misinterpreting. As far as I am aware (and as @susanc has mentioned it may be best to ask a professional as well) points work much like cash on Southwest, so that you can still swap flights of equal points without a charge. However, I am admittedly a little hazy about what happens if the flights are not the same point total.

[Edit]According to the Rapid Rewards FAQs, “If you make a change to your reservation that results in an increase of the fare and/or upgrade to a higher fare product, you will be required to pay for the increase with your Rapid Rewards points. If you do not have enough points in your account, you may purchase additional Rapid Rewards points with a credit card and use those points to pay for your ticket.” And for the question “is there a change fee?”, the answer is simply “No.”. May change in the future, but for right now it seems like they’re holding to it.

American use to allow you to change your airmiles tickets, I think the would go back into your airmiles account. No harm, no foul.

It did used to be thay free tickets with points you could change with no fee on most airlines, but a lot of them changed the policy a couple years ago. Annoying. Seems like if they have space on the other flight why not just let you change and do their frequent flyers a little curtesy. Now the airlines are just getting ridiculous with fees. They are like banks now. I can’t beleive banks have the chutzpah to charge a fee on some accounts just for having an account! They are holding your money and making money on it!

Maybe American still lets you change with no fee? I know Delta charges, unless they changed it back recently.

Did a bit of research, and it seems most do charge for changing now. This changed in July or August. So, now that is true, there is a new balance of just getting cash back from your credit card and ignoring these points, buying whatever ticket you need when you need it, and if you have to change it, you have to pay for the change. Maybe there will be a customer uprising. I called today to express my displeasure (very sweetly) to United for the new fee.

@Tropical_Willie. Nope. If you can’t use an American Airlines ticket, you can use the dollar credit for up to a year. After that it disappears. You have to think of somewhere else you want to go on American. Hurry up. Figure it out.