Originally Posted by
gras
I am flying business class IAD-LHR-HAM on UA (777-200) on 7 July. My darling bride is on the same itinerary using miles. With the messiness we are seeing now, I was wondering if I could purchase refundable seats on the same flight a day later with the hope of:
A) getting a refund for the later flight if the original flight goes, or
B) converting my cancelled flight seats to those reserved on the following day.
Anyone tried this? All advice welcome...
This sounds like a great way to lose your 1K status and whatever miles you have accumulated. I suspect there are many harried UA employees who would absolutely
love to make an example of someone who decided to reserve extra of their super-scarce J inventory to guard against a possible problem.
If there's a significant disruption, as a 1K flying in J, you're going to have priority for re-accommodation anyway. And if you're looking at booking flights an entire calendar day later, well, surely UA can find something to
somewhere in Germany before that?
FWIW, there's no chance of (b) working anyway. What would actually have to happen is that you'd refund the seats and then saunter back to the customer service rep and say, "could you check again? I think someone must have canceled some seats." They couldn't just take over the reservation in any meaningful way.