PanAmWT

Correct. UA interprets a one-way ticket as for business travel. They want to squeeze business traveler to the maximum. They know that tourists have a much lower maximum, so they offer cheaper tickets with stronger restrictions, and often at less than their average cost per seat. If one way ticket can be at half of round trip, then there would not be a round trip K fare in the first place.

ps9a

Sorry to resuscitate an old thread, and I feel like I should know the answer, but I'm looking at an $8k one-way international flight vs a $4500k roundtrip international itinerary on UA. I most likely only need the one-way ticket. Fare conditions show a $500 change/refund fee... if I take the outbound and cancel the return a month later, do they reprice the ticket before issuing a refund/credit? Or do I just get roughly $4500/2 -$500 = $1750 refund/credit to use later? Thanks in advance.

jsloan

It would be re-priced first. The only realistic way to use the credit is in some combination that still forms a valid roundtrip ticket with the outbound segment. So, if you're looking at AUS-BCN(-AUS), for example, you could use the credit for BCN-AUS or FCO-AUS or LHR-AUS, etc.., but not BCN-FCO or EWR-LAX.

ps9a

Interesting-- that could work for me. Thanks, jsloan

emcampbe

txaggiemiles

You could probably use it fo BCN>EWR or FCO>LAX as well. Pretty much anything EU>USA should go ahead and price at the r/t (or close to it) price. However, you should in that case just check on booking the r/t in that form, and avoid the change fee altogether.

therossinator

I have a similar situation. I booked a deep discount RT LAX-LHR for a long weekend. Now I need to return earlier but my outbound is fine the way it is. I would like to just use miles to book a new return as booking (or changing to) an earlier flight would likely be extremely expensive. I'm aware of the 24 hour SDC window, but this will likely be outside of that.
Is this allowed (I'm guessing no based on the contract of carriage, but hey, things happen)?
Can I get my PlusPoints back? What if I cleared the waitlist?
What would be the best way to go about doing this?
Should I attempt to make changes only after I've flown the outbound?
Should I avoid using UA miles to book the return and use another mileage currency?

JPG3392

I would suggest that you find out what it would cost you to change to an earlier flight. It may indeed "likely be extremely expensive", but it would be better to have exact figures before making any decisions.
If you have two incompatible LHR-LAX reservations on UA, UA may cancel either or both, with or without prior notification.
It would be well to keep in mind that OW tickets USA-Europe are often much more expensive than RT tickets on those routes.
Hope this helps.

UAFFSFO

I'm planning a trip to Japan this fall and I can't fully decide what to do...

RT fares in October are ~$1100 from SFO which is a great deal. However, if I were to do two O/Ws instead, the outbound flight is reasonably priced but the return is $2.5k+.

I've been dying to try NH's THE ROOM biz class but finding RT award availability is tough less than a year out - therefore, booking directly with NH seems impractical. O/W saver space is sparse SFO-TYO, even looking now within a week of departure. O/W saver space TYO-SFO is abundant though, some dates scattered through the summer and lots of availability within a week of departure.

I'm fine with rolling the dice for a CPU on the outbound (some days of the week / routes are clearing everyone on the list), but it would be great to use this opportunity to book NH's THE ROOM within a few days of my planned return to SFO (likely booking with VS).

This leads me to my question - is it possible to book the RT cash fare and get out of the last leg if I found saver space on NH a few days before I fly back to SFO? I've also toyed with the idea of paying cash for SFO-TYO (~$600 O/W) and booking a ~35k points saver economy ticket for the return which I can cancel if I found the space with NH. Thoughts? I'm totally fine with having future flight credit. Thanks so much!

jsloan

Not in the way you're asking. If you cancel the return of a cash ticket, you won't end up with the new flexible Future Flight Credit. You'll have a partially-used ticket to Japan that can only be used in conjunction with a combinable return flight (either from Japan or, depending upon the fare rules, possibly from other origins in Asia). In order to convert it to flexible future flight credit, you'd have to first reprice the ticket as a one-way.

Booking it as a one-way originally, and then using points for the return, is a straightforward alternative. There will be no fees to change to the NH flight if it becomes available.

jcturnbull

No CPU on international route. Needs Miles+Copay or PlusPoints applied to get on the upgrade list.

IAH-OIL-TRASH

There’s no “rolling if the dice” for a CPU on your route. There are none. As for everyone on the list “clearing”, at departure, only those who were upgraded show. The name of everyone else who did not get an upgrade disappears. Extrapolating what you see now in terms of upgrades to an October flight doesn’t have much basis.