Originally Posted by
meldorath
I was reading how you could not change names under any circumstances, but have a different story to add to this thread.
I bought two tickets several months ago and the flights are in a week, one award travel and the other paid. I put my name on both thinking I could change the name later, but found out I couldn't. I talked to a United rep and they told me federal regulations didn't allow flight name changes and I would have to cancel the ticket and repurchase. I spoke to a manager who was able to change the name on the paid ticket and was also able to contact Luthansa (connecting operator) and change the name on that flight as well.
Anyways, the manager indicated that because I bought the tickets together, same time frame, he would grant me a "one time" service. It took about 2 hours on the phone to achieve this.
I would guess that the manager just cancelled your award reservation and rebooked it in a different name without any change fee as a "one time courtesy". Look at the reservation and see when it says the ticket was issued. (not that it really matters, it was nice of them to do it)
Originally Posted by
azzurro
Yes, if they were on the same flight on the same day, the purchaser was lucky the bot didn't catch it. I have booked multiple award tickets with different connecting flights in the past to give myself travel options, knowing I would cancel one before departure and although it took a couple weeks for UA to find it, the bot caught on that one of the flights among each reservation was identical and cancelled both tickets for me, no questions asked. Bad bot. Or as UA might say, bad purchaser. lol.
I booked a couple reward tickets like this last summer, but UA never noticed... I guess I was lucky.