Originally Posted by
N104UA
I don't know what happened here exactly, however once the ticket was cancelled rebooking should have been easy (you can do this online and don't need to call in) l, my guess is that they were trying to refare the same ticket (did you ticket number and PNR# change?)
A cancellation and then a rebooking always uses the same PNR.
Originally Posted by
N104UA
I have EF alerts set for every flight I have booked for lower fare classes to come available, luckily most have been domestic flights with multiple daily frequencies and I have been able to change to another flight (at either the old fare or new fare) and change back within minutes. I highly recommend the $10/mo subscription as I have saved a few hundred already this year.
That's the key. What's happened is that UA has put some logic into its system where if the current set of flights is the sane as the most recent set of flights, the old fare is reused.
It's 100% intentional by UA, in an attempt to keep people from changing to a lower fare on the same flight for credit. I remember pmCO working the same way. Whereas I frequently am willing to give their IT the benefit of the doubt, this particular case is quite clear.
Originally Posted by
zombietooth
The cancelled flight only allowed for a FFC, ETC was not an option. The original PNR is attached to the FFC, so when you go to rebook, you have no choice but to use the link from the FFC as far as I can tell.
Originally Posted by
zombietooth
However, the 1K agent couldn't even force the inventory to show-up by using the FFC link. He did offer to cancel and charge me $50- to reissue at the cheaper fare, but I said that I'd just pay cash for the new flights and use the FFC later. That's when he suggested calling the rate desk.
This was the previous policy under the change-fee regime. It makes little sense in a no-change-fee regime, but... 🤷♂️
I suspect UA is concerned about automated alerts that will inform customers of price drops. I also suspect that UA is probably overestimating the number of people who would do that.
Originally Posted by
friedablass
I was able to rebook using FFC a few times without having to click through the link. I just did a search as usual on the site, selected the flight and on the payment page selected FFC and entered the PNR and last name that had the FFC $.
This only works for residual FFCs, generated as the result of a
previous change. It will not work for the type of FFC that is created when you do an initial cancellation of a reservation. This type of FFC -- the only one that existed pre-COVID -- isn't actually a document of its own at all. It's actually the previously-canceled ticket, which is why you have to follow all of the change procedures to use it. When you cancel a ticket and there's a residual amount, UA issues one of these newfangled FFCs, which are standalone documents that can be pulled into a new reservation when you're making a purchase. I
really wish UA would call these two products different names.