Alaska Airlines is the latest airline to announce that change fees will be eliminated permanently (following United, American Airlines & Delta). Unfortunately saver fares will not be included in this new policy (although those are covered through December 31, 2020 as part of Alaska’s COVID measures). It’s not clear if this new change policy applies to award tickets, it’s also not clear what will happen if you change to a ticket that is cheaper than your current ticket (under the current COVID rules you get a future travel credit for the difference).
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Although they waived the change/cancellation fee through December 31, 2020, Alaska charged a nonrefundable fee for award tickets. I did not check carefully enough when making the reservation, otherwise I won’t consider to make the reservation in advance considering current situation.
Hey guys, if today’s flying environment got you down, then use a jetpack instead…
A man flying a jetpack was reported by pilots above Los Angeles
https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/01/us/jetpack-lax-trnd/index.html
I’m always suspicious of these removal of fees. As with brokerages they’ve also removed purchase fees per stock but make that money back by increasing front-end and back-end loading fees. It must be pretty common knowledge how these airlines are making that money back given how quickly airlines are implementing this change. Where are they making back these change fees?
“but make that money back by increasing front-end and back-end loading fees”
Wtf does that mean?
Mutual funds can broadly be categorized as those that impose sales charges (load) and those that do not (no load). While the term “load” may sound strange, it principally refers to a sales commission that is paid to a financial advisor, broker or other intermediary who helps clients make decisions about which mutual fund to purchase.
Loads are just one part of the overall picture—investors, particularly those investing for the long term, should consider all costs associated with investing, including management fees, as well as potential returns, investment goals and risk tolerance before making a decision. Loads come in a variety of types, some of which might actually fit in with investors’ strategies and goals.
There are two types of load funds: front-end and back-end, which usually charge higher expenses. A front-end load means the fee (generally between 3% and 6% of the investment, or sometimes a flat fee, depending on the provider) is charged upon purchase of the mutual fund. A back-end load, also known as a contingent deferred sales charge, means the fee is charged when an investor redeems the mutual fund. The fee usually starts at 5% for investors who redeem shares within a year and declines by a percentage point each year after until the fee is eliminated.
Knowing is Half the Battle – G.I. Joe
Got it.
But he compared stock transaction fees to mutual fund loads
It surely hurts brokers and many are now pushing harder for mutual funds or options due to fees and commissions
But Andy is right, it isn’t really free, for starters, they can sell order flow to someone else so that someone else can front run the retail customers happily performing “commission free” trades. Just one out of tens if not hundreds of ways to profit without needing to mention that there’s a fee.
Yeah- df does tat mean???