I came across a USA Today Article titled "Senator to U.S. airlines: Waive change and cancellation fees for all flights during coronavirus crisis" and it prompted me to start this Petition.

Airlines should enable us consumers to adjust our travel plans, regardless of when we made purchases of flight tickets, not just issue these fee waivers for new flights being booked.

It makes no sense to only offer fee waivers to new travel being booked, while American Airlines continues to monetize off our change fees from previous flights booked, during a worldwide health crisis. 

U.S. airlines collected $4.3 billion in change fees in the first nine months of 2019, according to the federal Bureau of Transportation Statistics!

Travelers should not have to overlook their health and safety with the Coronavirus outbreak happening, because of financial loss due to high flight change fees during a public health crisis.

Ticket change fees are expensive burdens on top of the hefty prices of flights. These change fees can start at $200 a person. They will allow me to cancel my $400+ flight for flight credit but want to subtract $200 from it for their change fee. Fees like this oftentimes deter many travelers who already spent a good chunk of their savings on these flights, from canceling or changing travel plans, even when too ill to travel themselves. 

In weighing the current dangers and high risks of travel, we should not have to face the additional burden of flight cancellation or change fees. We want to travel when we feel we are safe to, not because we don’t want to lose more money that we’ve worked hard to earn, to pay for these flights!