Flight change fees
 

My daughter, who is visiting us from Hawaii, wanted to change her return flight, with AA, to a later date. She was told by AA that it would cos £900 plus £135 change fee. She then contacted Expedia with whom the flight was booked and informed it could be done for £135 but then she was told she would have to cancel her original ticket and book a new flight costing £700 plus the change fee. This doesn't sound right to me or her.
Although her ticket was booked as non-refundable there was a change facility. I've changed with BA in the past and had only to pay a change fee. Anyone had experience of this situation?

What happens once isn't the same all the time.

Different priced tickets all have a sliding scales of charges.

On top of that the biggest factor will always be availability. There are about 15 different fare classes in economy alone. If the class she has booked isn't available on the new date she will have to pay the fare difference on top of the change fee. At last minute that will almost always cost a shed load unless a very quiet time of the year, which this isn't. This is the 2nd busiest.

So AA sounds like the normal process. Not sure what Expedia is doing, but sounds dodgy.. Always best to book direct withy the airline as the price is usually very similar and then you get the easiest way of changing tickets. It is sometimes very hard to change a changed able ticket bought from an agent.

Agree with highflyer.

In effect they exchange your old ticket and issue a new one in the next available fare bracket and as a goodwill gesture they put the base fare of your original ticket towards your new one (fare difference).

If your original fare was £50.00 and the new fare is £90 then you pay the £40 difference. If your original fare was £50.00 and your new fare is £52.00 then you pay £2.00 difference.

And then the majority of airlines also charge a change fee or admin fee per person per sector, which varies between airlines.

Obviously if you have an all singing all dancing ticket then you can usually change it unlimited times free of charge providing there isn't a name change or route change (to a more expensive route).

As above. If she booked an Economy fare far in advance she benefited from a very low fare. Making a change much later on means that most probably only a few seats at the premium Economy fares are left. Hence the massive difference.