United's Travel/Weather Waivers: Ever Expanding?
May 26, 2017, 4:23 pm
#1
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United's Travel/Weather Waivers: Ever Expanding?
I know that United has been a bit more pro-active in posting its travel/weather waivers as compared to years past. However, it seems like they have gone to a more extreme "in case of potential disruption, issue and post a waiver".
Just as a self protection/tracking maneuver, I've actually bookmarked the travelnotices#ExceptionPolicies page and check it a few times a week, especially during travel periods. When I see them post, I've tried to post them to the United | MP thread if others haven't already.
Obviously these waivers help the non-elites and "lesser" elites when rebooking. From a FT <meta> perspective, given that United has gone to the more frequent "it looks like a potential problem, waiver it" approach, should there be a view/recommendation of "first go look at the waiver" page?
David
Just as a self protection/tracking maneuver, I've actually bookmarked the travelnotices#ExceptionPolicies page and check it a few times a week, especially during travel periods. When I see them post, I've tried to post them to the United | MP thread if others haven't already.
Obviously these waivers help the non-elites and "lesser" elites when rebooking. From a FT <meta> perspective, given that United has gone to the more frequent "it looks like a potential problem, waiver it" approach, should there be a view/recommendation of "first go look at the waiver" page?
David
May 26, 2017, 5:18 pm
#3
Join Date: Mar 2015
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I am surprised FTers would complain about this. If anything, the added flexibility probably allows folks to take advantage of route / plane switches that are advantageous for free! 
Jun 1, 2017, 12:35 am
#4
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I'm not complaining about it - I'm just commenting that United has greatly expanded what it will issue travel waivers for across the whole group of passengers affected instead of having no fees for changes for only those elites who already get their change fees waived.
Since United is gone to this approach, rather than posting multiple individual travel/weather waiver threads, perhaps a sticky thread might be useful where the latest waivers are posted in the wiki and all waivers are posted and kept in sequence as part of the day-to-day use of the thread.
This way, we can point newcomers and others to the waivers thread if they need the info as well as support individual threads for those events which have a large impact on the FT/travelling community.
David
Since United is gone to this approach, rather than posting multiple individual travel/weather waiver threads, perhaps a sticky thread might be useful where the latest waivers are posted in the wiki and all waivers are posted and kept in sequence as part of the day-to-day use of the thread.
This way, we can point newcomers and others to the waivers thread if they need the info as well as support individual threads for those events which have a large impact on the FT/travelling community.
David
Jun 1, 2017, 6:41 am
#6
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I know that United has been a bit more pro-active in posting its travel/weather waivers as compared to years past. However, it seems like they have gone to a more extreme "in case of potential disruption, issue and post a waiver".
Just as a self protection/tracking maneuver, I've actually bookmarked the travelnotices#ExceptionPolicies page and check it a few times a week, especially during travel periods. When I see them post, I've tried to post them to the United | MP thread if others haven't already.
Obviously these waivers help the non-elites and "lesser" elites when rebooking. From a FT <meta> perspective, given that United has gone to the more frequent "it looks like a potential problem, waiver it" approach, should there be a view/recommendation of "first go look at the waiver" page?
David
Just as a self protection/tracking maneuver, I've actually bookmarked the travelnotices#ExceptionPolicies page and check it a few times a week, especially during travel periods. When I see them post, I've tried to post them to the United | MP thread if others haven't already.
Obviously these waivers help the non-elites and "lesser" elites when rebooking. From a FT <meta> perspective, given that United has gone to the more frequent "it looks like a potential problem, waiver it" approach, should there be a view/recommendation of "first go look at the waiver" page?
David
If there is an active waiver, the "Travel Advisories in effect" link will appear in the upper right on the UAL site. If there aren't any and you want to look anyways, there's a link at the bottom of home page. Unless I actually have a need to make a change, I have no reason to look. If I'm concerned about my own flights, it seems alot more reliable to look at flight status and the status of the incoming chain of flights.
Jun 1, 2017, 6:59 am
#7
Join Date: Nov 2014
Programs: UA 2MM
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Personally I like that they do it a few days in advance to allow people to rebook or reroute ahead of time, have a look at the news articles from 2006 and 2003 when thousands of people were stuck at DEN during a snowstorm, proactive notification would have kept a lot of people out of there
Jun 1, 2017, 8:29 am
#8
Join Date: May 2008
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Similar threads have popped up in the AA and DL forums in recent times as well. I've noticed this, in particular, post the DL-ATL storm issue. Lots of proactive travel waivers, especially for NYC when rain/wind/clouds are going to throw us into ATC delays.
Seems a win-win IMO.
Seems a win-win IMO.
Jul 21, 2017, 12:45 am
#9
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United's Travel Waivers: Since January 2014
On United's Jetstream website (at least the public facing portion), here's a link to their master tracking list of travel waivers that's (according to the web page) updated 15 minutes and has all travel waivers going back to January 2014:
Note: depending on your server's/browser's connection, the page may take a little time to load since it is including all of the data since January 2014 and hiding it under monthly dropdowns.
David
Note: depending on your server's/browser's connection, the page may take a little time to load since it is including all of the data since January 2014 and hiding it under monthly dropdowns.
David
Jul 21, 2017, 8:20 am
#10
Join Date: Sep 2005
Posts: 485
I let myself get really annoyed at the frequent travel waivers every time there is a 20% chance of rain at a hub. After giving it some thought, it is a win-win for everyone, especially flyers.
What I think was annoying me about it is it's adding to the hysteria of the people who are pants wetting panic bunnies every time there is a thunderstorm. Have you watched your local news lately every time there are garden variety thunderstorms in your area? In Denver yesterday, the local news started off their broadcast with "5 team reporters" scattered around the metro area to report that it is about to rain or just rained. In the event of severe weather, you better be repenting your sins! And don't get me started about the meteorologists telling me or kids what to wear in the morning and throughout the day.
Weather became a source of entertainment in the last decade, for the most part thanks to the Weather Channel. So in order to get people to watch, everything is scary, everything is dangerous, everything requires you to pay attention...to them.
What I think was annoying me about it is it's adding to the hysteria of the people who are pants wetting panic bunnies every time there is a thunderstorm. Have you watched your local news lately every time there are garden variety thunderstorms in your area? In Denver yesterday, the local news started off their broadcast with "5 team reporters" scattered around the metro area to report that it is about to rain or just rained. In the event of severe weather, you better be repenting your sins! And don't get me started about the meteorologists telling me or kids what to wear in the morning and throughout the day.
Weather became a source of entertainment in the last decade, for the most part thanks to the Weather Channel. So in order to get people to watch, everything is scary, everything is dangerous, everything requires you to pay attention...to them.
Sep 17, 2017, 3:40 pm
#11
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Starting with Maria, I've included the waiver parameter code that jetstream.united.com has so that folks can see what United Air Lines is offering with respect to the rebooking options and waived fees for that travel waiver.
Waiver parameter code legend included below.
David
Waiver parameter code legend included below.
David
Sep 17, 2017, 3:57 pm
#12
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I let myself get really annoyed at the frequent travel waivers every time there is a 20% chance of rain at a hub. After giving it some thought, it is a win-win for everyone, especially flyers.
What I think was annoying me about it is it's adding to the hysteria of the people who are pants wetting panic bunnies every time there is a thunderstorm.
What I think was annoying me about it is it's adding to the hysteria of the people who are pants wetting panic bunnies every time there is a thunderstorm.
Jan 5, 2018, 6:46 pm
#13
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2017 UA Travel Waiver Stats
Used data from: https://jetstream.united.com/#/all-travel-waiver
Ingested data available at: https://goo.gl/bJEi4Y
(with thanks to mduell!)
For 2017, UA posted 117 travel waivers with 697 separate airport references
1. By month:
2. Most impacted airports:
The remaining 3 through 1 airports:
(i.e. all other airports with 3, 2 or 1 waivers)
3. Event types (by group):
weather (general): 69
weather (badder): 27
man-made: 15
other not good: 6
4. Waiver lengths:
longest waivers:
event with most waivers:
events affecting most airports:
5. FT discussion threads:
David
Ingested data available at: https://goo.gl/bJEi4Y
(with thanks to mduell!)
For 2017, UA posted 117 travel waivers with 697 separate airport references
1. By month:
Code:
mon | # mon | # mon | # mon | # -----+-- -----+-- -----+-- -----+-- jan |16 apr | 4 jul |11 oct |13 feb | 7 may | 7 aug |14 nov | 2 mar | 7 jun | 4 sep |21 dec |11
2. Most impacted airports:
Code:
airports # airports # ---------------+-- ---------------+-- ewr/jfk/lga/hpn 25 ord 9 phl 18 iah 6 bos/bdl/pvd 11 alb/syr/pwm 6 bwi/dca/iad 10 airports # airports # ---------------+-- ----------------------+-- ith/syr 5 abe/btv/yul 4 atl 5 cha/pns/vps 4 den 5 fuk/hnd/kix/hnd/ngo/nrt 4 sfo 5 acv/fat/mry/pdx/sjc/smf 4 sba 5
(i.e. all other airports with 3, 2 or 1 waivers)
Code:
# airports -+-------------- 3 59 2 63 1 79
3. Event types (by group):
weather (general): 69
Code:
type # ---------------+-- winter 22 tropical 9 severe 35 thunderstorms 2 fog 1
Code:
type # ---------------+-- cyclone/TS 25 earthquake 1 volcano 1
Code:
type # ---------------+-- terrorism 3 power 3 technology 1 strike 5 unrest 1 pollution 1 closure 1
Code:
type # ---------------+-- fires 6
4. Waiver lengths:
Code:
length # ---------------+-- 1 day 12 2 days 30 3 days 22 4 days 19 5 days 14 6 days 3 7 days 3 8 days 2 9 days 2 10 days 2 10+ days 9
Code:
length event ---------------+-------------------------------- 57 days Hurricane Irma - Leeward Islands 36 days Hurricane Maria - Puerto Rico 33 days Hurricane Irma - Puerto Rico
Code:
# event -------+-------------- 9 Hurricane Irma
Code:
# event -------+-------------- 34 Pacific Coast Weather (January 18 - 20, 2017) 34 Northeast US Winter Weather (March 14 - 15, 2017) 23 Northeast US and Canada Winter Weather (March 18 - 19, 2017) 22 Midwest and Central Plains Weather (January 13 - 16, 2017)
5. FT discussion threads:
Code:
# threads percent
--------------+--------
85 73%