Originally Posted by
eng3
It looked like there was a reference to $300. If that is the case, it does not seem more or less flexible other than the fact that you can get cash back (which you can use for anything) vs a ECT (which must can only be used for UA Travel within a year).
Maybe it was a computer glitch offering a "flexible" fare for the same price as the "non-flexible" (if it were available).
Certain international markets do not offer non-refundable fares, just due to market forces. By UA's own definition, a fare is "flexible" if it is refundable and changeable (even with a fee).
It might not feel like much on a $500 G fare, but even with a USD 300 fee, if your parents are not flying UA monthly, it's the difference between $300 of new money
and flying $500 worth of UA-plated travel in 12 months (or complicated chaining tricks to extend validity), or just getting $200 back in your wallet if you cancel. For a frequent flyer that's not a big deal. For the once-a-year traveler with no loyalty, that's $200 extra they wouldn't get otherwise if they have to cancel.
Always note that most of the time change fees require
new money, so one of the purposes of "paying up" for an unrestricted fare is that you can change as many times as you need to without losing anything. This is generally a minus-EV proposition if you only change once, and more and more corporate travel departments are catching on and requiring "lowest available" tickets and eating change fees. That being said, I got some insight into co-workers' travel when giving away RPUs in January and I was absolutely astounded how many changes got made to the PNRs. Many people just don't exert any planning effort on OPM travel and treat it like a metro ticket.