Originally Posted by
JimInOhio
With prices going down for buying a ticket, I'm considering buying the tickets, probably in W class, as PZ space is available right now in all of the flights of interest and I have a whole bunch of PlusPoints that potentially could expire anyway.
Note that if you are willing to use 80 PlusPoints per person, you can upgrade any fare, not just W+.
Originally Posted by
JimInOhio
If I go the purchase route and need to cancel but rebook for, say, the following year, is there any protection against a substantially higher airfare on the same route?
No.
That said, in general, W fares (if you decide to use them) are fairly static. They can be seasonal, but the W fare for any given flight doesn't change particularly often. When UA wants to change the price of a flight, they normally do it by adjusting inventory levels.
However, there is a major caveat here. You asked about rescheduling for the following year, but your ticket would only be good for use from 12 months from the original issue date. Furthermore, during the no-change-fee promotion, if you were to cancel, and then re-use the future flight credit for another, less expensive ticket, UA would
keep the difference.
I have a hard time recommending the paid ticket under these circumstances, even with PZ available.