RandomBaritone

Alas, it appears I may have been partially right after all: trying to make a flight change online results in repricing.

Looks like calling in will be required if you want to stay at the sale mileage price.

ctownflyer

It will reprice no matter what. This isn't coded like the pre-deval awards where changes later on were allowed.

Even if an agent says they can override it and not charge you don't believe it. Still wound up debiting me the difference.

RandomBaritone

So you're saying I was right, and any change will result in additional miles being collected? I was smacked down earlier for suggesting such a thing based on the word of one phone agent.

To be fair, the terms of the promotion do seem to indicate that changes are allowed without repricing.

farnorthtrader

Hi all, checking to see if anyone has dealt with this situation and/or whether what I am asking is unreasonable.
We originally booked flights IST-EDI-NYC on June 24, then NYC-ORD-MCO on the 25th. IST-EDI was on Turkish and the remaining flights were on United, so 57,500 miles in business. Turkish had a schedule change, so we had to go IST-EDI on the 23rd, the remainder stayed the same.
At the end of February, while the promotion for partner flights was on, I was able to change IST-EDI-NYC to IST-DUS-NYC, all on the 24th, eliminating the overnight connection. Because the promotion was available, this cost us no additional miles, despite switching the overwater segment from United to Lufthansa.
Today, direct flights from NYC to MCO opened up, so I wanted to eliminate the connection in Chicago. I tried to make the change online, but the computer wanted 12,500 more miles. I called United and asked to make the change. They also advised that it would be 12,500 more miles. Initially, they said that it was because the ticket had been mispriced because using Lufthansa should have cost the additional 12,500 miles. I explained that this change was made during the promotion, so it was properly priced at the time that it was done. They then came back to me and were clearly tired of talking about it, as she said that to change it now would be 12,500 more miles and they would charge me $50 for the change and there would be additional taxes. There would be no additional taxes and I am silver premier and not changing the destination or the origin so there would not be a fee either, but they clearly wanted to discourage any further discussion, so I thanked them and hung up.
Sorry, a very long explanation of the situation to ask a very simple question. Should I be able to change a ticket booked under the partner promotion that end February 28 without having to pay additional miles?

mherdeg

Well, the T&C of the promotion said (or I guess implied) "changes you make after this date will incur extra miles."

http://www.united.com/web/en-US/apps...omoCode=A14673

farnorthtrader

Thank you for providing the link to the terms and conditions, I could not find this before.
I could not find where it said, or implied, "changes you make after this date will incur extra miles."

mherdeg

In my reading, the phrase 'promotion period' includes the 'book' dates.

It was a good try! Hope you can make things work out.

farnorthtrader

Although reading through it, they may be correct that I was charged incorrectly when I made the change from United to Lufthansa and was given the promo rate:
"This offer cannot be applied to previously issued tickets"

TennisNoob

Just letting everyone know I backed the travel date including changing the destination within the same region successfully. However I had to wait 20 minutes on hold while the experienced Rep was able to knock the extra mileage. She and her supervisor were confused as to why but they were able to fix it correctly.

No additional miles

juergenritz

Hi,
tried to optimize my ticket. Now they UA wants to collect additional miles. (57500 to 70000) , additional to the change fee. Anyone had the same experience.
thanks
Juergen

RandomBaritone

It appears I was right all along, that online changes result in repricing.

Some in the thread have had success getting the additional 12.5K miles required for changes waived over the phone, but it seems to require escalation. YMMV.

Kacee

Are your new flights within the promotional period?

TennisNoob

As long as the flight is in 2015 it's within the promotional period.

I got the change 3 times successfully. Just took 15-30 minutes on hold w/ an agent.

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It can't be done online, you must call in, that agent (hopefully experienced) will call the ticketing department to "manually price" your ticket down to 57.5k

I asked each agent at the end of the call (on purpose) to see if I get a different answer. They all have been "clueless" and say you're completely right and I'm totally with you, lol.

bkjohnso

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I also was successful in making 4 changes to a 'promotion' itinerary (SFO->IST->VCE, VCE->ARN->PRG, KRK->IST, IST->SFO was my final state. I changed all of the legs except SFO<->IST during this process), after the promotion 'ended' without needing more miles. In every instance it took ~20 minutes for the agent to make the change, so it is likely that an escalation process took place.

I made sure that I told them upfront that I did not want any changes made that would require additional miles & that I thought from the terms that no additional miles should be required. On my fourth itinerary change they mucked up my itinerary which resulted in an after the fact subtraction of miles giving me a negative balance & a nasty note to this effect about 3 days later.

I called them back & after about 45 minutes they had (I hope) rectified the situation. I got the itinerary that I wanted without additional miles. It was a struggle & they ended up telling me that the only reason that they were honoring the reduced number of miles required was that the agent made the change without supervisor authorization & despite the fact that I did not have enough miles to meet the number needed after a re-faring.

The moral of the story on this is to be careful in how you request changes of this ilk & make sure that the agent understands that you do not want any changes made that result in a re-faring for a higher number of miles.

lewende

You are the man!

I had the same situation - was asked to collect additional miles when change a promotional booking online and with an agent. Checked back with FT and found your post; then called back referenced your exact wording and got it all set! The only hiccup I had was: the agent insisted all travel must be completed by July 29, 2015, but since my travel will be completed by July 7, this is not an issue for me.