Airlines waived change fees this weekend because a nor'easter showed up on a weather map. Flight disruptions trickled into Boston. Trickled. Not poured. Not flooded. Trickled.
The nor'easter did what nor'easters do every single winter in the Northeast. It brought weather. Airlines responded by deploying their most sophisticated crisis management tool: the fee waiver press release. Retail traders who booked flights to Boston immediately checked their brokerage apps to see if they could somehow trade this information. They could not. They tried anyway.
The fee waiver exists because airlines spent decades conditioning passengers to believe that changing a flight should cost more than the original ticket. Now when a storm approaches, they waive the fee and expect gratitude. It's like charging someone fifty bucks to use your bathroom for ten years, then waiving it once because the pipes froze, and demanding a thank-you card.
Some guy in Connecticut definitely saw "flight disruptions trickle in" on the news and immediately panic-sold his entire portfolio. His reasoning: if flights are disrupted in Boston, the global supply chain must be collapsing. He now owns gold coins buried in his backyard and tells people at parties that he "saw it coming." He did not see it coming. He saw a weather report.
The nor'easter will pass. The fees will return. Airlines will go back to charging you a hundred and fifty dollars to click a button that changes your seat assignment from 32B to 32C. And retail traders will continue to believe that weather patterns in New England constitute actionable intelligence for their Robinhood accounts, which is why they'll die poor and confused.
Photo by Artturi Jalli on Unsplash
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