Originally Posted by
mangoMan
My father had plans to visit me in a couple weeks but had to have an operation and is therefore going to cancel his ticket. I understand how he'll be able to get a waiver on the change fee once he re-tickets his flight by uploading a note from his doctor. I believe the waiver would also extend to any traveling companions, in this case his girlfriend. However, my dad had bought his girlfriend a ticket in J (she has a bad back and can't tolerate economy for the 5+ hour EWR-SFO flight) and his ticket is in Y. As such, I believe their tickets are on separate reservations. Do traveling companions have to be on the same reservation in order to get the fee waiver?
My father did pay for both tickets and used his Chase UA Explorer card, so maybe the card's travel insurance will work if UA can't extend the waiver to her?
Were they Y and J fares? If so you can just refund the ticket as those are fully refundable fares. However, as most people don't book Y and J fares, if the ticket is non-refundable, you need to actually cancel the flight, then upload a note from the Doctor stating travel is not recommended on this site https://www.united.com/ual/en/us/customer/refund
I did this a few weeks ago and after getting the note from the doctor it took maybe a week to get the refund.
For his girlfriend, I don't know the circumstances of their relationship but domestic partners are included in the definition of family members (I have a family member that has had the same "live in girlfriend" for 20 years but in most states would be considered domestic partners or common law married). So if she would qualify as that I just explain to his doctor you booked separate tickets and if she could get a separate letter.