Kacee

United doesn't sell A fares on ps routes. It's not a BusinessFirst fare. So you were attempting to change from a connecting itinerary to the ps nonstop. Not surprised to hear that required a substantial upfare.

Not to be pedantic, but SDC just waives the change fee. If your ticketed fare class is not available (and in this case it could not have been, since there is "A" on ps flights), you must pay the fare differential to the cheapest available fare. I'm guessing that in your case it was a C or a J, thus the very substantial price differential.

The agent may not have been particularly polite or understanding, but he was following the rules. I also suspect they get frustrated when pax insist they are entitled to something to which they are in fact not entitled.

PV_Premier

i'd suggest OP not worry about these kind of things and just start flying DL from LAX to JFK. DL allows free SDC to any available premium seat, regardless of the fare basis, provided that it is some type of paid J/F fare. Y fares that are upgraded with instruments also get to play in this fun.

transportbiz

The comment could very well be interrupted as a corporate practice exists for such behavior.

Cargojon

DL does the same crap with fares in their mini-hub of CVG. Why do you think flying to/from CVG is so expensive...because it's under-served by other carriers and most of the CVG residents are DL captives. Same but to a lesser extent with ATL and MSP.

ocn2ocn

It might have been a "P" fare then, I'm not sure. It was on a nonstop originally, so it was the right fare class for a SDC.

Does DL allow elite upgrades on its transcontinental service into JFK? If so, what type of experience has anyone had as far as likelihood of upgrades clearing? Also, are discounted J class reasonably priced?

findark

DL is reasonably similar to UA - no CPUs, and the fare chart is very similar as the market is being driven by B6 right now.

ocn2ocn

I thought Delta had relaxed its restriction on upgrading its transcontinental flights -- at least for its highest level Medallion members. Does anyone know if this is true and if so, whether United may follow Delta's lead with the PS routes?

The $1200 C-fares appear to be extremely difficult to find. Most of the fares quoted on the website are dramatically higher.

I don't believe standby is an option on these flights. Are they subject to the same domestic same day change rules?

Does anyone have any intelligence on whether UA will relax the upgrade rules on the PS routes?


While I hear from some agents that rule strictly allows a change to the same fare class, others tell me it is not so. I have frequently made changes to nearly full flights -- for which I'm sure the same fare class was not available -- and have not been charged. Is there a concrete policy on this or not? Thanks.

nycityny

Yes, but the other side of the coin is that if United allows the switch for free then the passenger gives back to United a $600 seat and United re-sells it for $2,500. So United is whole if they allow the switch without the upcharge and they provide some goodwill.

Of course, United gets to double dip if the passenger pays the upcharge and United resells the original seat at market price as well.

Yes, the official policy for SDC is for the same fare code but allowing exceptions for high level elites isn't a bad customer relations move since it costs United nothing.

ocn2ocn

Good point about fairness. My real issue -- as a starting point -- is to have a clear and consistent policy. In several years of doing same day changes, it has never definitively been told to me that the same fare class must be available. In fact, I can't imagine that the same fare class is often available last minute -- if ever. UA owes us all some clarification on this rather than having to rely on an unpublished policy or exceptions.

narvik

I agree 100%.

To turn this around: if the airlines (UA is not alone here) would not charge change fees, or increase fares as departure time gets closer, there simply wouldn't be ANY seats available; the flights would all be overbooked, and we'd then all complain that that a same-day later flight is not even possible.

Overall, I find the UA pricing and booking system to be quite fair and reasonable.

RandomBaritone

My understanding is that all fare classes open up completely a few (3?) hours before takeoff, to solve precisely this problem. In other words, if there's a seat available in your cabin within a couple hours of takeoff, at that point you can SDC into it.

Much harder at T-24, or even T-6 for that matter.

WineCountryUA

The same fare class is not required but if not available there will be a fare difference cost.

UA clearly states
This is fully covered in http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/unite...15-2016-a.html

For "free SDC" the same fare class does need to be available.

nycityny

I respectfully disagree.

I'm not saying that there should be no change fees or higher fares closer to flight time. But if they're going to have an SDC policy that is meant to be a perk then it should not instead be punitive. It is more than useless if they waive a $200 change fee and charge a $1,900 upcharge instead - it is insulting and does nothing to generate goodwill.

ocn2ocn

This is very useful information. Do you know if this is an actual policy that can be relied upon or is more just your experience in real time when trying to do same day changes? Thanks.

iluv2fly

Many different GS agents have told me that this is the case.