EAlyse

Updated travel waiver includes Orlando through September 17th...I'm flying in September 13th but the storm should be passed by then. Do you think it would be a problem?

Vulcan

I am ticketed EWR>DEN (arr 11:45 AM Friday)>TPA (via IAH in P) departing DEN at 11:30 AM Saturday. The program I was going to in TPA has been cancelled due to Irma.
What are my options?
Cancel and eat the $200 fee
Any way to get UA to allow me to Cancel and either refund the entire ticket ($621) or give a credit without charging me the $200? I have no reason now to book/depart EWR>TPA for $621 by Sept 30 as the wavier states.
I suspect that I just eat the $200 cancellation fee????

jsloan

If your flight is cancelled, or delayed significantly, you'll be eligible for a refund. So, don't rush to cancel it.

Vulcan

Good idea, but I suspect the EWR>DEN will not be a problem. But hope springs eternal!

jsloan

Agreed -- but if DEN-TPA cancels even an hour before your EWR-DEN flight, you should be able to get the entire ticket refunded. If not, you're not in any worse shape than you are now, provided you remember to cancel before departure.

zombietooth

Waiver has just been extended to all Florida airports.
I am in the same boat as you. P-fare out of TPA.

Vulcan

So. That was easy. I called the Gold line and explained that I no longer needed to do this trip. I was told by a nice agent in Chicago that she would make a notation in the record that the trip was cancelled because of the Irma wavier and that I had a year to use the funds. I would not be charged a cancellation penalty. She did a lot of typing in my record while on the phone and advised that I would probably need to call in when using the funds and point that agent to the notation she made to make sure I was not charged the cancellation fee.
This is not a huge deal, but if it works, its nice to think UA can occasionally come to a rational/fair resolution. Fingers crossed.

lvovsky

I just had a different experience as Platinum. Need to cancel return leg PLS-EWR-DEN-ABQ flight on Sept 16 because the outbound leg on Jetblue is already canceled. A nice lady on said the waver doesn't extend to the 16th. I will HUCA...

DELee

Here's the updated waiver for Florida airports as well as extending to 17 Sept 17 (for now) - includes TPA:

Also adding an image of the e-mail sent to travel agents that highlights the newly added Florida airports.

David

Repooc17

The agent is NOT giving me the option to cancel the itin and receive a voucher for future travels. She is only giving me the option as shown on the travel waiver website, which is perfect fine, except this week in September is the only time I can travel to MCO.

Do I have any other options?

The agent then tries to sell me rental cars for my upcoming flights

nomad420

Nice that they are are waving some change/cancellation fees but they are gouging pax trying to get out of South Florida for sure. My brother is scrambling to book a flight out of Ft. Myer or for that matter any airport out of Southwest FL to CLE (preferably) and is seeing pricing between $900 to $1800 one way of course! Considering he flew down for just under $200 I consider this ripping off those unfortunate people now stuck down there. I get they are in the business to make money and fine charge a REASONABLE fee but that is gouging. If you think I am exaggerating and/or if you see a cheaper price please post it and I will forward it on ASAP but we have been looking at crazy pricing by UA all day. You would think they might even consider increasing flights out of the area (at fair and reasonable rates) up until the weekend to help those evacuating.
I know I guess what else should I expect, it is UA.

jsloan

Flights out of RSW appear to be full and/or cancelled. For tomorrow, Google Flights is only showing JetBlue, with 24+ hour connections. They list a $157 flight on AA for Thursday. Friday, the only flight listed is a $1271 AA flight.

If he already has a UA ticket, the fare doesn't matter; if he can find any seat, he can make the change for free. If not, I'm not sure what to tell you; this isn't likely a matter of fares being raised due to gouging; they're simply running out of inventory. Keep in mind, UA's IAH operations are still recovering from Harvey.

nomad420

He bought a one way down so basically has no ticket now. I will pass on the AA info thanks. I understand that AA is actually increasing flights (for now) in and out of south FL. I do understand that they are running out of inventory but really charging nearly $2K for the final few coach seat is a really a bit much. I get it they are in the biz to make money but com'on.
Again, thanks I will contact him now. Poor guy literally just bought his condo down there, hope it turns ok for him.

minnyfly

Flights leaving Florida are overbooked. A reason why the remaining fares are sky high is because you're basically paying for the probability that someone gets voluntarily bumped. And I imagine that the going price to be bumped with a hurricane bearing down on the airport will be very high. It's not gouging.

jsloan

FYI -- I did a quick comparison to one-day advance purchase fares from three months ago. Most of them are identical; a few others are $30 more. It doesn't really look like UA raised fares any, although it's possible that they added extra inventory restrictions. Then again, the few flights that I do see are Y2 B2 M2, not Y9 B0 M0, so this may just be a result of people with existing tickets for this weekend calling to get on the earliest available departure.

I hope he's able to get out of there safely.