wcj1

In the Contract of Carriage that is dated 22 April 2009 on united.com, it says that schedule changes have occurred when the departure or arrival has changed more that 2 hours. So 90 minutes is now out.

http://content.united.com/ual/asset/COC22APR09final.pdf

(Edit since this thread is getting old: the above URL points specifically to the 22 April 2009 CoC. Go to this URL to see the most recent, although it is still 2 hours for this particular item as of September 1010. http://www.united.com/page/article/0,6867,2671,00.html)

I was just checking my schedule changes last night. I had booked something that was roughly (I am not looking up the exact times, these are just for illustration. But I am open to suggestions on how to fix this.):
DFW-ORD 7:00a-9:11a
ORD-MHT 1:11p-4:24p

So I had exactly a 4 hour layover. In the new schedule DFW-ORD got bumped up 10 minutes, so the layover went over 4 hours. They never paid attention to that before, but now they "fixed" it so my itin is DFW-DEN-MHT. DEN-MHT is a single flight number, but change of plane in ORD.

I really do not want to fly to DEN on the way to MHT, but the DFW-DEN departure is 6a, so technically it is not a schedule change, unless I can convince the agent that this is a change in the routing which adds a stop, but it could be argued that it is not with the single flight number. I guess I could also try that DEN is not in the routing rules for DFW-MHT fares.

Any other ideas?

To the mods with itchy fingers: Please do not merge this with the schedule change thread. I think it is a big deal that the time limit has changed, and others will to.

BillJ

Mike Jacoubowsky

Good catch. For good & bad, it will save me a whole lot of time because I won't keep thinking about better alternative routings for my flights since the chance of a two hour schedule change is pretty darned low. Some pencil pusher somewhere probably just made UA a whole lot of $$$ with that one, as I'll bet that extra 30 minutes makes a big difference in how many flights are now considered to not be what you originally bargained for.

WineCountryUA

Interesting change and thanks for posting this but remember the CoC in place at time of purchase is binding.

warreng24

You can call them and request your original routing back. I have done that a million times regardless of whether of not the time qualifies for a change.

ie. I had a BOS-DEN-LAX scheduled.

BOS-DEN has a minor 5 min change, but that caused my layover to become invalid (over 4 hours). Then it automatically re-routed me BOS-IAD-LAX. I called and asked to be routed via DEN again. 10 min later, my problem was solved. And, I had a 4 hour and 5 minute layover in DEN.

cepheid

And for what it's worth, I have just created the Contract of Carriage page at the UA FlyerGuide wiki. It contains links to the current CoC as well as all known previous revisions, to help people find the CoC in place at time of booking.

BWIflyerman

This is why I'm on FT. Thanks for posting this where I can find it when I need it Cepheid.

itsme

Yet another "enhancement," though one they're not crowing about.

afrugal1

+1

ozstamps

I imagine the same rationale might be used by the OP's for the last 500 threads that have been merged here?

milepig

I'm sure they'll say the change is to "serve us better".

wcj1

Yes and no. I do not totally disagree with merging. But I think we would need less of it if there was as much effort put into a well organized FAQ/wiki and then we could focus more on discussion on this discussion board.

Imagine if we had a good FAQ to help answer the a constant stream of *can I change my routing on standby, *UA caller ID, *various upgrade questions, *claiming miles on an invol... just to name a few active threads from today.

BillJ

SAT Lawyer

Thanks for letting us know. That is a dreadful change from a customer standpoint.

itsme

What might UA say to explain the reason for this change? Is there any rationale they could offer, e.g., an operational one, or is it exactly what it looks like, that is a screw us move so we can't cancel as easily? (And it hasn't been easy to cancel on a non-refundable ticket anyway.) I can understand not counting it as a change only if the time is at least one hour different, but up to 1 hour 59 minutes is too much, since its not hard for that to mess up one's plans.

By the way, I presume all this contemplates a change from earlier to later, e.g., purchased ticket to fly leaving at 1PM, but now flight will depart at 2:45PM. They couldn't, could they, chose to advance a flight, e.g., move their first flight of the day from 8AM to 7AM? I don't see the word "later" in what is quoted from the CoC with regard to what constitutes a schedule change.

WineCountryUA

?? With a significant reduction in flight schedules, they were probably seeing the precentage of those exceeding 90 minutes increasing.

What is the policy of the other majors in USA or WW?

itsme

Suppose they have flights A-B at 7:15AM, 9AM and 12 noon, and you book the 9AM one. Now, they cancel the 9AM, leaving only the 7:15AM and the 12 noon flights. Clearly, they couldn't stick you on the 3-hour later (12 noon) flight and refuse to let you cancel and give you a refund. Could they, though, stick you on the 7:15AM flight and refuse to let you cancel, because that schedule change is a less than 2-hour one?

I very much doubt they would ever do this with an earlier flight so long as it was less than 2 hours earlier, but I'm not sure the revised CoC terms preclude the possibility.