Originally Posted by
paule123
I noticed something odd last week when I made a change the night before departure. Originally booked in E+, and my MUA cleared 20 days in advance, and got the F seat. The day before departure, I decided to take that evening's redeye and IIRC in the UA app trip options a blue banner type option appeared to change the flight. When I clicked the banner it offered the redeye option as the first (and only?) choice, in F, with zero fare difference. Finding that hard to believe I opened another browser and followed the standard manage flight/change flight flow there with the traditional grid format search results - the grid displayed a ~$271 fare difference. I was a bit puzzled by that, but went back to the "banner" option to change the flight and indeed it processed with zero fees and kept me in F.
PZ (the booking class used for upgrades, including MUA) was available on the red-eye.
Currently the same-day change feature is allowing/forcing people to change into open PZ if they have a cleared upgrade. (This is also why it was the only flight offered).
Thus, no charge when you use the same-day change feature, but a fare difference (and a refund of the miles + copay for your MUA) if you use the regular change.