Originally Posted by
fatlasercat
1) I wonder what will happen to intl bookings where there is change fee. Will the no residual rule apply to those as well? That would be pretty bad news. As you pointed out earlier, this new practice gave me pause before booking intl P deals especially since March
Way too soon to tell for sure, but the handwriting is certainly on the wall. There were already some no-residual fares filed prior to March; LH group was particularly fond of them. Of course, that pales in comparison to the no-changes-allowed rules on some LH-group P fares...
Originally Posted by
fatlasercat
2) No residual is not universal yet. I was messing around with some tickets (to use etc for non-UA operated flights) and to my surprise I did get an etc for a residual. It was only about $10 that I was planning to loose, because I couldn't optimize better. Now I didn't look at the fare rules for the original, but I assumed that UA had been only filing fares with the no residual rule since April.
The text has been in the waiver since it was first put into place in March, but I didn't check to see if the fare rules were updated at that time.
Originally Posted by
Christefan
Besides losing the fare difference if the earlier flight happens to be cheaper than the original purchased one, SDC within 24 hours "if the same booking class is available" is also very hard to achieve since most discounted fare classes are no longer available 24 hours before departure.
I frequently purchase discounted economy fares, and I'm frequently able to SDC. I'm not always able to get the exact flight that I want, but I'm usually able to get close. And I suspect that diminished demand means more availability...
Originally Posted by
Christefan
Also, how does this new rule affect changes to LATER flights as it relates to SDC and standby flying?
I don't personally believe there was an intent to change the way that SDC works, but it would be nice if there were clarification. The only reason that they would make the change to eliminate later flights is if they were tired of the abuse from people moving their flight by a week, 12 hours at a time. I think it's more likely the case that for 99% of the non-FT community, the desire is an earlier flight, not a later one. As for standby -- there is one person on the board who has claimed to be able to standby for a later flight on a regular basis, but for the most part, the intention of standby is to catch an earlier flight, because you still have a confirmed reservation if you don't get onto it. I suspect that standing by for a later flight is something that will happen as part of flat-tire rule accommodation: you miss your flight, so they put you on standby for the next one.
Originally Posted by
findark
it will remain functionally impossible to fly standby in any cabin other than Economy?
For CPU routes, I'd say that's accurate -- they will continue to clear CPUs well before they'd clear any standbys. For non-CPU routes, I'd be tempted to file this under wait-and-see. It does seem that they're rewriting the software that handles list clearance, so it's possible that they're going to clear lists independently.
Originally Posted by
SOBE ER DOC
With UA, any advanced-purchase fare class is likely zeroed out by departure day so, even though there is not a change fee, I am still socked with a fare difference if I want to confirm a different flight.
Again, that simply doesn't match my experience. I'm not going to claim that classes level X hours prior to departure, as they once did, but I've been able to do numerous free SDCs. I generally fly discount economy fares, and it's a rare flight that I'm not examining my SDC options, at the very minimum. While there are occasionally flights where I have no options, those are the exception, not the rule. The biggest challenges that I've faced are during the times when the app has decided to allow you to keep your upgrade during SDC, which is contrary to policy (and shouldn't be allowed for CPUs). In that case, the app is only looking for PZ space -- or, if I've been upgraded on one leg of a connecting flight, PZ space on that leg and my original booking class on the other leg, transiting the same city -- but a phone call has been able to get what I want.
As a simple test. For today's flights, and only looking at non-stops:
SFO-FRA: Available in all classes except IN/I and G, the latter of which isn't used.
SFO-EWR: the next flight is available in all fare classes except IN/I. The red-eye is sold out in J but available in all Y fare classes. Every intervening flight is available in every fare class.
MIA-ORD: sold out in J; zeroed out below W
AUS-IAD: available in every fare class
DEN-CLE: earlier flight is available in everything except IN/I; later flight is available in all fare classes.
This isn't a handpicked list; this is every city pair I tried (except LAX-CLE, because there weren't any nonstop options on that route).