Originally Posted by
scotti81
Thanks - I knew there had to be a pretty simple flaw in the plan, otherwise it would no doubt be something more widely used. I suppose at best it could be used to "borrow" miles against future purchases, but I can't imagine that being much use.
I've "borrowed" Chase EQM this way. But I was always careful to never refund more than I bought in new tickets, so I didn't have to worry about negative credit.
Originally Posted by
Starman
So I was under the impression for many, many years on UA that on a ticket that mixes fare buckets, such as the case you describe, the most restrictive penalty-change-rebooking rules apply to all segments, thereby, for example, dragging a Y/B fare down to the rules of an S/T fare. Perhaps Fastair could comment?
When changing a ticket, the change fee is the highest fee for all *changed* fare components. So if you leave your S/T unchanged the Y/B (i.e. no) penalty applies. Even some res agents don't know this, but it's in the rules. (Though I'd recommend that if you're planning to do this, you read the fare rules carefully and make sure this clause is still there.)
You do have to worry about combinations though -- often the S/T is not combinable with the Y/B, and I can't find anywhere where these rules are written down.