Tanic

I'm ready to change my $2800 July ticket on UA and experienced a couple of snags. First, when accessing the reservation on ual.com and using the change button, got this message: "We cannot process this change online. If your reservation was made through United Reservations or united.com, please call 1-800-UNITED-1 (1-800-864-8331) or call the Reservations phone number on the back of your Mileage Plus membership card. Otherwise, if your reservation was not made through United, please contact your original place of purchase." Second problem, the 24 hour reservation hold feature on ual.com was removed from their website a couple of weeks ago.

Since I'm not a frequent UAL pax, is going to the airport counter still the best method? Is it safe just to cancel the original reservation on the phone and rebook within one year, or is it better to re-issue a new ticket at the time of cancellation?

alcatholic

Almost everyone has written that going to the counter is best. It worked for me with AA. However, it didn't work for me with Delta. The Delta agent said cancellations were very complicated for the ticket counter and referred me to Delta.com or a phone rep.

In fact, as I wrote in another thread, Delta seems to have changed the terms of my ticket so that it is now a refundable ticket. Who knows, maybe Expedia incorrectly listed the ticket as non-refundable at the time I "purchased" it. But now I'm trying to very carefully deal with my refundable Delta ticket before I try to get a voucher. I think I can change the refundable ticket into a more expensive non-refundable ticket.

I'm a little concerned because I need to fly in August, but we'll see.

Tanic

Today I invested one hour at the UA counter, $4 for parking, and $175 change/transfer fees; got a cheap OW ticket to DEN, and a nice voucher in hand. ^ The transaction was somewhat complicated since the senior agent had to call ticketing for instructions.

I'm so used to doing everything on WN's website, that I tried using ual.com. Bad move. Phone agents weren't much help either. So yes, in the case of United, ticket counter worked fine.

vxmike

I tried to change my non-refundable Delta ticket online tonight and got this message again.

"Unable to Edit Itinerary Online
This itinerary cannot be edited online because you may have checked in for some flights, or the schedule for certain flights in this itinerary may have changed."

Appears we're unable to change non-refundable DL tickets online anymore. Guess I'll be heading to the airport in the next few days for I'm sure a fun time with the ticket counter.

moondog

This has been reported to be the case since ~March. IIRC, DL wants to charge you money in order to take over the reservation from Expedia and their online change tool doesn't facilitate such.

budblab

I changed 2 tix over the phone at 2 different times, and did not get charged an Expedia fee on either exchange.

alcatholic

I just changed my ticket over the phone.

I actually tried to go to the counter at LAX and they didn't want to help and felt it would take a long time for them to do it. they strongly recommended calling Delta.

I called and it worked fine. I believe I was charged $20 bucks to take over the ticket, but I'm not sure and certainly didn't worry about it.

psychtobe

I attempted to use my AA booking and ran into some major problems. I'm hoping for some guidance and also am hoping the agent was mistaken, though she sounded very confident.

For background, on Feb 10 09 I booked an AA ticket in my name, cost about $1950. Flights were scheduled for around Dec 20 09.

Today I called and canceled the flight, leaving me with about $1800 in credit. I then asked the agent to apply the value to a ticket in my wife's and daughter's name. She refused, stating that the ticket was non-transferable and any credit had to be in my name only.

I then told her I didn't want her to cancel the ticket, because I was not prepared to make a reservation in my name today, and she had started the clock ticking on the 1 year rule. She replied that regardless, I had exactly one year from the date of purchase of the ticket to use the value; specifically, she stated that travel had to commence by Feb 9 2010.

My understanding from previous posters is that this credit could be used for other travelers, and that I had 1 year from the date of the ticket change (today) to make a new reservation (not commence travel, just make the new ressie). If I am wrong on both counts I am SOL, because with a baby on the way in October there is no way I can use up $1800 of value before 2/10.

Someone please tell me she was wrong???

gv111

The first ticket must be in your name. If you are not travelling, you can book a throwaway ticket (around $50-75). You will get the residual value in the form of a voucher which can be used to book tickets for anybody. Please refer to the sticky (page 1) for further details.

alcatholic

I would also do a search for posts by Happy, who was pretty thorough is sussing out the 1 year deadlines as they apply to cancellation, rebooking, residual vouchers, etc. Bottom line, I think you will be fine.

vxmike

I just rebooked my Delta reservation over the phone. It took about 25 minutes total with hold times but was painless.

The change fee was $150 + $50 for external tickets. The initial rep told me it would be $20 for a phone booking, but after I was transferred to the "rebooking" desk I was not charged the phone fee.

I changed to a $79 all in throwaway from DTW-ORD. My total voucher is now $2698 after the new ticket and change fee. Not a bad final result for probably around $30K in Citi spending. I was given a 006-****** ticket number for the voucher and I can't find anything online using the number. How does one actually find and use the voucher?

budblab

It is stored in your Skymiles account. When you purchase your next ticket there will be an option to pay with an e-credit, and it will prompt you to find it by your Skymiles number.

fwallets

Has anyone successfully rebooked their TYP ticket/s on DL.com quite recently? Or were you forced to call DL instead? Thanks!

WBurcham

Thanks for the help :-)

virmaior

I think someone mentioned a trick where you buy SW tickets and make changes to them. They claimed it ends up giving you a bunch of flight points because each change shows up as a different flight...