Oh no! I frequently used this function to reserve a ticket for family members who don't want to search themselves, and then have them complete the purchase. This really sucks...
Programs: AA EP, UA 1K, DL GM, Tumlare Bussresor Super Class
Posts: 6,974
Quote:
Originally Posted by aacharya
Umm no. It's a loophole around paying for FareLock that they finally decided to discontinue, because nobody pays with Cash or Western Union.
It looks like the farelock price has gone up too. It used to be as low as $7 for 3 days, and now the lowest I can see is $10.
Another change we'll like?
Programs: UA 1K, Hilton Gold, SPG Gold, Marriott Silver
Posts: 189
Oh darn, I just did a dummy booking for an itinerary I've been price monitoring (in Jan 2013) and the cash option is gone.
Too bad. I will admit I was a HUGE abuser of the holding itineraries with the pay by cash option. Coupled with the 24-hr refund policy, I was essentially able to hold fares for nearly three days. Oh well, I knew that wasn't gonna last... so blame me fellas.
The cash option only held a tkt for 24 hours. The old .bomb was mipuch better for holding tkts. SHARES was a horrible downgrade w this & now they made it worse. All fares do not offer fare lock. united
Programs: UA Platinum, DL (burn baby burn), HH G, SPG Gold, TA nada
Posts: 1,470
Smisek has got to get cash into the airline somehow. Nickle and dimeing are the ways he see's able to do it with PRASM down and the lean quarters coming up. I except to see a lot more.
Programs: UA 1K, Hilton Gold, SPG Gold, Marriott Silver
Posts: 189
The cash option actually held until midnight the next day. So it could have been well over 24 hours if you did the cash option just after midnight. Then couple that with actually purchasing the ticket and refunding it within 24 hours of ticketing near the end of the hold period.... that is how one got a nearly 3-day hold on fares. It was super useful for booking trips on relatively short notice where I knew fares were going to keep going up rapidly if I didn't act on them, so I would lock down a fare and get to planning other details of a trip and discard it all if unneeded.
Programs: UA 1K, Hilton Gold, SPG Gold, Marriott Silver
Posts: 189
Also I guess I should clarify.... while I guess this pay by cash trick could have been a way to circumvent farelock, farelock isn't offered on every flight (e.g. the late booking flights that I am referring to).
Programs: UA 1K, Marriott Platinum, Enterprise Exec
Posts: 6,670
Quote:
Originally Posted by Slurve30
Also I guess I should clarify.... while I guess this pay by cash trick could have been a way to circumvent farelock, farelock isn't offered on every flight (e.g. the late booking flights that I am referring to).
Well, you can still buy the tickets, and cancel the next day.
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2013 CPUs: 15/23* RPUs: 5/5 GPUs: 5/5
*The ones that missed: EWR-SEA/SAN/LAX, SFO-EWR (x2), PHL-SFO/ORD and IAD-SEA
I don't see the Western Union option any more. And no more pay by phone, either.
Looks like free "holds" are really dead.
Oof. This is a problem for the following workflow:
Put the itinerary I want on hold.
Call United and ask them to upfare the outbound segment, but not the return, into W.
Ticket and apply a GPU to the outbound segment.
It's really, really hard to buy a ticket in W outbound / K return (if you want to apply an international upgrade to the outbound segment only) without already having the exact itinerary you want on hold.
This workflow will have to change a little now. We can still ticket, then call within 24 hours and beg to upfare without being charged a change fee; or call and book the entire itinerary from scratch with a reservations agent.
