Originally Posted by
Kacee
I could not duplicate those fares (are you sure the UA fare is an L, and not a G?), but looking at dates in August, UA has a round-trip L fare (LLE0ZCC2) priced about $400 US cheaper than NZ's L (LKSVAM). Among other differences, the UA fare is nonrefundable and has $250 NZ change fee, while the NZ fare is refundable for a fee of $150 NZ, and has a $50 NZ change fee. The NZ fare also has a 14 day advance purchase requirement, while the UA fare has none.
Different products.
Can anyone, with a straight face, justify the practice of changing or even a person paying twice as much to get the option of obtaining a refund (and even then needing to pay an additional fee)? You would need to cancel half your flights to make this worth it. And unless the flight will be sold out, it's almost always still cheaper to just buy a walk-up.