Saver award reservation to changed standard award? for free after schedule change
I had originally booked a 3 segment (IAD – SFO – LAX – MEL) saver award for late December. I received notice that the SFO – LAX segment had a schedule change, and we’d arrive in LAX about 50 minutes prior to our flight departing for MEL. The schedule was already pretty tight before that, but at the time of booking there weren’t any other saver awards available. I called to see what my options were (I knew there was a newly available saver IAD – LAX – MEL flight, leaving IAD at 6:20AM that I really didn’t want since LAX – MEL departs at 10:30PM) and after the agent searched around for options, I suggested the IAD – LAX – MEL departing IAD in the afternoon, which was only available at the standard award pricing. After being on hold for a while, she came back and confirmed the booking. I was not charged any additional points.
Just wondering if this is a loophole I discovered in UA’s award system, or I just got lucky with the phone rep I spoke with.