Normally, I try to avoid airline change fees like the plague. Today, I had one work out in my favor. Or, at least, it has a net result that is saving me some cash.

I have a work trip to Phoenix next week. My original flight was scheduled to depart early afternoon on Wednesday and for return around noon on Friday. After the trip was ticketed, I decided to use two Hyatt free night certificates at Miraval in Tucson next weekend. My plan was to find saver award availability for a new flight back and to just buy a one way ticket if necessary. The price for a one way had been hovering around $228 the last several weeks. I’ve delayed buying that one way, hoping award space would open. It hasn’t, and now, the one way is $388.

Today, because one of my clients has an issue that’s going to bleed into next week, leaving Chicago late in the day on Wednesday makes a lot of sense. I could likely make this change on the day of travel using a free “same day standby” process. But, part of the reason for pushing back the time of the flight is that the day is going to be full. The last things I want to add to that are having to get to the airport super early for the flight I hope to take and the uncertainty around whether there will be space (availability looks ok, but waiting has risk and would require a certain amount of time and energy on that day).

So, I clicked the little “change flight” icon on my reservation to see what the cost of changing would be. Turns out that I can change to an evening flight on Wednesday and move the return flight from Friday to Sunday for a total cost of $146, inclusive of the the change fee. This is the difference in fare (the new flights are cheaper than the cost of the original flights) plus the change fee. The change fee is $200, which burns me up, but because American Airlines credits the amount initially paid, the cost to make the changes is only $146. (I also note that I could have purchased an entirely new flight for less than the one way return ticket was going to be,)

In the end, I am able to change to flight to adjust for a client situation and to change the return to accommodate my own plans for $242 dollars less than it was going to cost to buy the new one way ticket home. Yes, please!