palmetto86

Hi everyone, I just realized I made the gravest of all Flyertalk errors.

My return flight this weekend is for Saturday instead of Sunday. I'm leaving late Friday EWR-Caribbean for a wedding Saturday night and wanted to return Sunday. However, my upgrade just cleared and I realized my return is actually booked for Saturday.

What would you do in this situation to minimize out of pocket costs, yet still attend the wedding? Show up Sunday morning and play dumb? Call now and see if an agent can fix over the phone? Book a one-way award flight return?

Any and all advice is greatly appreciated.

[You can leave out the comments about "that's why I always double check...blah blah blah." I have over 500,000 lifetime miles, and this is the first time I've ever done this. We all make mistakes.]

UA-NYC

Check the loads for the desired Sunday flight. Does it look good for a SDC? Is it a once-daily flight?

You can do a test run on the flight change - see what it's pricing out at for fare diff (in addition to change fee)

fjfv19

Don't feel bad. I did something equally mystifying a few weeks ago. I booked my flights EWR-BCN//GVA-EWR on June 11th to June 17th instead of June 18th to June 24th. Didn't realize until I checked the invitation for the pre-wedding ceremonies which occur on Friday 21 June, not Friday 14 June.

SDC is a great option if possible. We're darn close to hurricane season so loads tend to be lower in the Caribbean at this point, but I'd do some ExpertFlyer work to be sure. I found an extremely sympathetic phone agent who was bemused by playful self-flagellation on the phone and she agreed to waive the change fee if I paid the up-fare. I paid an extra $150 into a higher fare class but avoided the big fee. My GPU still isn't going to clear, however.

SometimesFlyer

I would check the Sun (and Mon) loads before trying the above. Since you booked it one day early, you really don't have a fallback in the event the loads are heavy. If it had been the reverse, worse case you get back a day later.

Personally, I would book a 1-way refundable on Sun with a different airline as backup, then keep my fingers crossed that I find a compassionate agent on the original reservation.

PV_Premier

i would also recommend the one way refundable or award ticket (assuming your 1k status is accurate, no redeposit fees so award ticket makes sense), and try to same-day change your original ticket. if you are successful, cancel/redeposit the other one, if not, you have a way to get home.

Duke787

Expert mode is also important for the SDC so you can not only check loads but monitor space in your current fare class to make sure you don't get hit with a charge for difference in fare. It also could be worth making a call to the 1K line and seeing what they say (try late afternoon EST and get a HNL based agent), worst case scenario is they try and charge you a ton of money and you say no and hang up, best case you get a sympathetic agent who waives the change fee.

anc-ord772

I say book a ow saver award and wait to see what happens with SDC. Worst case, you're out 12.5 or 25k for a seat home. Also call at some point because you never know, might get the right agent.

Often1

Before you do anything, you need to price out the options:

1. What would it cost to change (theoretically $150 (if domestic) + fare difference)? Your fare bucket might be open and as a 1K, the CSR might waive the change fee. Why go through the other hoopla before you know what the worst case scenario is?

2. What is the cheapest OW on any carrier? Maybe it's less than #1, in which case you simply abandon your UA return and fly back on the other carrier. It's even possible that it's easuer to rebook a OW on UA.

3. SDC is a bad idea xCarribean. It only takes any one carrier cancelling a 1x/daily service and all of the other carriers can go from wide open to oversold in a second. Unlike more frequent services, blowing SDC means you are stuck for another night or two at your destination. Or, you are stuck buying a full Y ticket (for which UA or almost any carrier will overbook).

Once you've got the numbers in front of you, only you can make the decision as to which option makes sense. Seems silly to save $200 to spend a lot more.

channa

This is great advice.

I would also add:

4. Call and pull a mea culpa. Just tell them what you did and see if they have any discretion. Maybe they can move you for fare difference and waive the fee, or change fee only. Who knows, but it's worth a try.

zgscl

I wish I could say I have never made the same mistake!

If OP were to buy full Y on oversold flight would they be at risk of being bumped or would they get priority as elite and/or full fare?

PV_Premier

UA will sell a full Y fare in almost all cases. for a very expensive full Y fare, it is still a winning proposition for them to take that full fare $$ and IDB compensate someone on a discount economy fare.

fahrradman

If that's the worst you've done in .5M miles flying, your doing well. I'm over 1M BIS miles and I've:

1) Shown up at the wrong airport (LGA instead of EWR). Result, was put on a flight out of LGA without charge.

2) Shown up at FRA on wrong date (return ticket booked for right day, wrong month) for a flight to YYZ. Change fee charged, think it was a couple hundred bucks and buy up to J offered for around 500 bucks). Gladly accepted.

3) Booked wrong month on return of weekly ORD-LGA commute. I realized when I went to OLCI. Called airline and they fixed with no change fee.

If you fly enough, eventually you'll make a stupid mistake or two.

Often1

Although I'm not 100% certain, UA's first factor for IDB is fare class. As a Y pax, IDB isn't remotely in the cards. And, if it is, the carrier is on the hook for hotels & meals + comp until they get you home.

PTahCha

Worse case scenario: make your change after you arrive, so it doesn't unravel your outbound flight. I like the idea of booking an one-way return as insurance.

zgscl

I would imagine they would never IDB a full Y