Helping travellers avoid flight-change fees - for a modest fee, of course

New York

SUCH is the state of air travel these days that even the fees have fees.

It is a ritual that will most likely sound familiar to many holiday travellers: Your plans suddenly change, and a flight must be switched. Soon you are paying a flight-change fee of US$200 or so. But so extreme have these airline change fees become that a cottage industry has emerged offering a way for travellers to avoid the charge - for a fee, of course. And even the airlines are getting in on the act.