Originally Posted by
j2simpso
Did you buy the ticket within the last 24 hours and is the trip happening in over a week? ....
No reported cases of UA using the seven-day limitation (and many reports of UA not enforcing it) but doubt this is a 24 hour time window booking in the first place.
Originally Posted by
j2simpso
and this is gonna sound strange, your best bet may actually be to fly the SFO > EWR segment initially and then make the change after you've taken the outbound flight. IIRC UA prices changes to flights differently depending on whether you've flown any of the trip or not with more favourable terms coming if you've flown parts of the trip already. ...
Generally not a factor for domestic trips. Could have been an issue for an international trip -- so not likely relevant in this case.
Originally Posted by
j2simpso
However, when you use that travel credit UA will deduct the change fee from the ticket
UA requires "new money" for change fees, it is not deducted from the ETC or cancelled ticket credit.