<p>Just found out that at least a few airlines don’t penalize you the $150 or so change fee IF you make the change within 24-hours of the reservation. I’ve done this twice with two different airlines–Hawaiian & United. Both said they wouldn’t assess the change fee. SW doesn’t seem to charge any change fee, as long as you have an account with them.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, the United fare went up significantly since I tried to book the ticket & the system crashed, so the agent kindly offered to & did put S on a priority waitlist so he could get to his new internship at the more decent hour of 6:28 pm instead of 9pm, before catching the 30 minute shuttle down to his summer housing.</p>
<p>Moral of the story, keep working on things and call the airlines to try to straighten things out as soon as you can think straight. Here’s hoping the agent is right & he gets his seat & arrives in Norfolk with a clear head!</p>