Originally Posted by
Kacee
{T]he language has been cobbled together with no attempt to reconcile the contradictions. It's a cut and paste of irreconciliable terms, which is consistent with the overall bungling of the implementation of these extraordinarily poorly disclosed fare terms. If these terms were ever litigated, a competent judge would find them ambiguous and interpret them against UA on that basis.
Originally Posted by
Kacee
I know this has been referenced before, but even the fare rules are ambiguous. There's a lengthy "Changes" section which appears to track a normal deep discount economy fare. The only indicator of how special these fares are is the one line "NONREF/0VALU/NOCHG" in the Penalties section (and this isn't really a penalty). I'm moderately competent at reading fare rules, and it took me a while to reach the proper conclusion on this one (after doing a dummy booking once the dreaded message had popped up in my reservation on the app).
I truly believe they are not contradictory. You have to remember that the most restrictive rule apply and this is a consistent rule for anything related to air pricing per IATA.
The PENALTIES category (not validated for autopricing; more human readable) clearly says:
CHANGES/CANCELLATIONS
TICKET IS NON-REFUNDABLE. CHANGES NOT PERMITTED.
In the VOLUNTARY CHANGES category (used for automated changes), it has a long irrelevant text for WHV passenger but at the bottom it states:
IN THE EVENT OF CHANGES TO TICKETED FLIGHTS
ANYTIME WITHIN TICKET VALIDITY
CERTAIN DOMESTIC REISSUE PROVISIONS MAY BE
OVERRIDDEN BY THOSE OF UA INTERNATIONAL FARES
CHANGES EXCEPT RBD NOT PERMITTED TO THE PRICING
UNIT.
OR -
ANYTIME
CERTAIN DOMESTIC REISSUE PROVISIONS MAY BE OVERRIDDEN
BY THOSE OF UA INTERNATIONAL FARES
CHANGES EXCEPT RBD NOT PERMITTED TO THE JOURNEY.
Only RBD changes are permitted.
But again, I do think UA needs to add the same warning as for Basic Economy fares. I think UA can still get away with this as it states on the checkout page:
Purchase of this ticket means you understand and agree to all fare rules associated with this ticket, all terms and conditions associated with any additional offer/product purchases made, United's dangerous goods policy, and the terms and conditions in United's Contract of Carriage.