The phrase "a change fee" is correct and usable in written English.
It can be used when referring to a charge applied for making changes to a reservation, such as a flight or hotel booking.
Example: "If you need to alter your travel plans, please be aware that a change fee may apply."
Alternatives: "modification charge" or "alteration fee".
JetBlue does not charge a change fee if you're only claiming a lower fare, so you may be more likely to actually collect a credit on their flights.
There's a couple of big caveats, though - mostly because of the big airlines' practice of charging a change fee even if you're not switching your itinerary.
Fortunately, a United agent at Heathrow let me switch to a direct flight to Kennedy Airport, without charging a change fee.
If your plans alter, just pay a "change fee" (currently £15 to £45 per person per flight) plus – crucially – any difference in fare.
Until yesterday, passengers could get on a later flight as long as seats were available and they paid a change fee.
The passenger will also have to pay a change fee that usually amounts to $100 for domestic flights and up to $200 for international flights.
ChangeYourFlight provides an alternative for these non-refundable tickets, with airlines providing a partial refund without any change fee.
Try getting a refund on a reservation fee after a flight attendant asks you to move seats to accommodate a family, or a ticket change fee after your flight's delayed, and you'll find out what Feldman already knows: airlines would really prefer to keep all that tasty ancillary revenue.
Ryanair evidently prefers to rely on its own medical judgment, and in your case it decided that a punctured lung did not even justify postponing your flight without a substantial change fee.
This pricing actually serves to protect the change-fee racket, because no rational person would buy a ticket at, say, three times the normal fare instead of one at the regular price, plus a potential change fee.
I was informed that there would be a flight change fee of £120 (£30 per person), then was told that, since our flight had been subjected to a previous enforced change by Ryanair, no fee was payable.
