jsloan

In general, if you see something you like, you should book it, because you never know when it might disappear. However, you need to weigh the importance of getting the excursionist perk for free vs. the problem of potentially missing out on the long-haul flights that you want.

There are mixed reports about making changes when there is no further availability. Some people have reported that agents flatly won't do it; others haven't had much of a problem at all. I've also seen reports of people making changes successfully online, although since it's not pricing properly for you online, that doesn't seem like a great idea.

The underlying problem is that UA sometimes fails to communicate the updated ticket number through to the partner after a cancellation. When this happens, the partner believes that the itinerary has been refunded and will therefore drop the reservation. They were running into enough problems from this that they eventually changed the behavior to be closer to a cancel-and-rebook, which has fewer issues.

If you decide to go this route, and you find a willing agent, you need to make sure to follow up with Ethiopian after the change and ensure that they have the same ticket number that UA does -- a ticket number that needs to have changed from the one that was originally issued.