Originally Posted by
channa
Is it really one click and it's done? If so that is shady.
I would have thought it would take you to a confirmation screen before charging, no?
its one click, but as MrCT said, they will refund. It happened to my wife, she called me, I called UA, cleared up in 2 seconds.
Originally Posted by
Beerman92
I'm not sure what offers "these" are. There are plenty of data points of cash upgrades being offered on United that are not straight fare differences. The term TOD seems to offend people unnecessarily.
I don't think the OP ever knew of or speculated on any offers for upgrades on any flights other than those posted in the OP.
I have seen 4 different upsell points and they ought to be kept separate as I think they have a different pattern:
(1) The first (which OP got) is the difference to a A/F fare at purchase.
I don't have a problem with these, and I don't think anyone on FT really does either, and UA used to do them. The fare could have been purchased 30 seconds before, and they are equally available to all. If someone for example books a coach fare and F or BF is available for a little bit more, UA ought to tell them. I think the real issue here is that SHARES sucks in not given all fare options before purchase. on DL you get the F and the Y fare displayed next to each other, other airlines show the F price on a matrix (AS, VX, WN). UA is just behind on its web site in how it does the offer of FC and in only given one option on the price for a flight.
(2) second are e-mails which are set out, and I think are triggered when R or (after the clearence window for R has opened) P or A is over a certain point. These offers appear to be less than the buy ups at initial purchase when ever I have bothered to track them. Usually they are not a great deal though, I have never gotten one that is a true TOD. Has anyone else? I can't recall any reports of them being TODs.
(3) third are the buy ups at check in. At 24 hours they are not so great, sometimes lower than the e-mail offers, sometimes in a similar price range. I have only seem a few that were really TODs ("tens of dollars")
(4) finally are buy up offers that are made either right before departure (if you check in several hours before the flight) or when printing out a ticket at the kiosk. What I think happens is that UA cuts the prices for all tickets, offering discount A and then also lowering Coach prices, right before the flight. This lowers up-sell spreads and gives out TODs.
The only thing I don't know (but there are reports of) is if non-elites get lower prices or more offers. I have personally gotten several clear TOD offers right before flights (either checking in at the kiosk right before the flight or printing a boarding pass) - where I took the time and it was clearly less than the spread to a M fare (with P available) as it is supposed to be - but don't have any data on a non-elite getting the upsell when I did not as an elite.