Originally Posted by
jsloan
What James said -- except, don't use the website; the Change Flights functionality isn't particularly reliable. If this a corporate trip, reach out to your travel office; if you booked it yourself, call. If you are in KWI now, note that Skype and Google Voice will both allow you to call 800#s at no charge via WiFi.
Forgot to mention that tidbit. The online change feature only works well if you've got a simple itinerary (i.e. all flights operated by UA/UX, in the same fare category). My friend had an all UA/UX itinerary but unfortunately one of the segments was in Y since it was a single cabin aircraft. He had to call into UA to get the itinerary he wanted since the online change feature only suggested options with *A partners (not all UA/UX which he needed to tick the 4 segment requirement).
As a general guideline, I'd recommend doing some searches using
United's Expert mode from KWI to DFW noting the available fare buckets for each segment. Generally speaking if you can find availability in the same fare buckets on the new itinerary as in the old itinerary (i.e. positive space in C) then in general you won't be paying any stinking fare difference or if you do the amount will be nominal. For instance, here's one such available itinerary from KWI to DFW I could find in C for September 2:
As you can see the flight is showing 4 seats available in the C bucket for each segment KWI -> FRA and FRA -> DFW. This also happens to be the best possible way to get back to DFW, minimizing both time and connections. In theory if you wanted you could call UA and ask them to quote you how much it would cost to switch to this sort of flight. Supposing you're in C you'd just be looking at a fare difference which in this example should be minimal... Oh and yes UA is more than happy to dump your entire itinerary onto an entirely *A partner operated flights, it happens all the time! Sometimes you'll even get a fare refund if the *A partner is offering the fare for less! You'll still be earning PQD since it's ticketed on UA stock. Award milage and PQM earning should be unchanged by such a move as well. The only downside I see with such an approach is if you're short on the 4 segment requirement when travelling on UA to re-qualify to your desired Premier level which given your travel habits I suspect is not the case.
Safe Travels,
James