Here’s a clever way to beat airline change fees

Thanks to an absurd post-9/11 policy called “no waivers, no favors,” most airlines will charge you either a $100 change fee or force you to pay for a new ticket when you make an innocent mistake while booking your flight — like typing your maiden name instead of your married name.

The airlines insist that it’s a “security issue” and that the Transportation Security Administration has forced them to take these draconian measures. Which is, for the most part, complete nonsense. Carriers could easily make their airline tickets transferrable (a few do) or at the very least exempt passengers from their change-fee requirements when they’ve made an honest mistake. Instead, they insist that they pay up.

But yesterday I discovered a clever strategy for getting around this silly rule.

It can only be used in certain circumstances involving a legal name change. But you’ll have the satisfaction of depriving the airline of an unearned change fee.

A reader, who asked that I not use her name, wrote in with the following problem: Her mother had bought her a ticket and used her married name instead of her maiden name. But she had reverted to her maiden name after getting divorced, so the ticket name was incorrect.

The airline was demanding a $100 change fee to fix the mistake. In theory, she might have been able to get through the security checkpoint with the right documentation, and she might have even been allowed to board. But why chance it?

My advice — which turned out to be wrong — was to pay the change fee. It would give her the peace of mind she seemed to be looking for.

But I should have mulled that one over. If the authorities were looking for a driver’s license in her married name, why not go that route?

And that’s exactly what she did.

Last night she wrote me with what I thought was a truly elegant solution.

“I just found out that the State of Texas will issue a Texas identification card in my married name for $15,” she said. “And I get to keep my driver’s license in my maiden name. So, I’ll have two government-issued ID card: one in my maiden name and one in my married name.”

“Wow,” she added, “I feel safer knowing how easy it is to get a governmental ID issued in two different names.”

Yeah, me too.

Christopher Elliott is the author of Scammed: How to Save Your Money and Find Better Service in a World of Schemes, Swindles, and Shady Deals. Critics have called it “eye-opening” and “inspiring” — it’ll “grab your attention and won’t let go.” Order your copy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble or iTunes.

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