Originally Posted by
threeoh
You cannot hold that buying a no-changes ticket legally requires you to board that flight. If it's "use it or lose it", there has to be a (legal) way to "lose it".
I do agree with this part. In fact, it's a violation of the fare rules even to go back and re-fare it as a one-way -- "no changes," after all. Something tells me that UA would waive that rule in a heartbeat though.
So, yes, I think UA has backed themselves into a bit of a corner here. With a regular penalty fare, it's easy to make the argument that it's a CoC violation to throw away the return if plans change -- UA's expectation is that you pay the change fee and any necessary fare difference. But on a fare that disallows changes, I'm not sure what somebody is supposed to do. I think UA would have a difficult time enforcing throwaway ticketing rules on BE tickets, unless they could show that the passenger never intended to fly as ticketed. (For example, if a passenger purchased LAX-LHR-LAX at 3 PM, and then purchased a separate LHR-LAX reservation at 3:30 PM, UA probably has a case).