Originally Posted by
PsiFighter37
Do keep in mind that the prices on Chase Travel are higher than what you pay on UA’s website. I am sure that it makes the extra miles earned from such bookings. I would never consider paying money for tickets this way and would only do it if the mileage redemption for UR points was better than UA’s website. Even then, the hassle of dealing with OTA rules really isn’t worth it IMO.
I don't think it's universally true that prices on Chase Travel are higher.
In fact, I suspect any difference in price on Chase Travel vs. UA have to do with the ability of - I forget what its called - for UA, when booking direct, to book in a lower class with 0 availability, which wouldn't be available via any agent. In other cases, a TA might actually get a better price if they are booking a bulk fare and so can choose to sell it cheaper.
There are definitely potentially point-of-sale differences, though those are probably more likely to be seen when booking foreign airlines using the Chase/USA point-of-sale vs. the one from the origin city. For example, I used to book a bit of TG flights India-BKK/other Thai destinations, and often times, the fares using the local (India) point of sale were the discount fares you would expect, but booking via a US one on sites like Orbitz, etc. you could only book into a full Y fare.
Originally Posted by
cfischer
well yes, they can take over tickets either for free (1K/GS etc) or for a $50 fee - if there is pushback explicitly mentioning willingness to pay 'fee' might help. Now, 'credits' are trickier since residual credits for example don't apply to (O)TA tickets and I don't think you can magically make them appear by paying this fee. If this is just a 'use an existing FFC and pay nothing or extra' - that should work
I'm curious about this too - its been a while since I've booked via Chase Travel and needed to cancel/make a change.
Using Cap1 Travel is where I've had more recent experience, and as late as last year, I had to cancel a ticket booked via there. I was able to cancel on UA.com, just as if I had booked via UA direct, and received full credit, and was able to rebook. I can't remember if there was residual remaining, I don't think so, but I suspect I would have had that as well if there was anything left. While I don't doubt an agent can and would collect the fee, and the web site may not touch tickets booked on many other OTAs, my experience with Cap1 Travel (Hopper) is that UA treated it practically the same as if booked direct. YMMV.