TheHorta

Is this even legal?

UA bull whips their own customers!

https://www.msn.com/en-us/travel/new...rQG?li=BBnb7Kz

Hepsaint

Grab some popcorn...This one is going to be a fun one to watch spin-up

SuperG1955

I'll leave it to the attorneys but logically, if UA and I had a contract and terms in place when I bought the ticket, neither should be able to change those terms. If they want to change them going forward for new purchases, that's fine.

I'll have a bag of popcorn please.

NotHamSarnie

And if we lived in an actual market economy, one of the other carriers would jump on this and say "Hey if you have a UA ticket and they can't get you to where you're going, let us welcome you to our program" and offer some loss-leader incentive. In practice, they're all in cahoots and race only to the bottom.

Often1

The COC have not changed. They are all that matter. See Rules 21, 24 & 27.

ATOBTTR

I'll be curious to see how this plays out, both for advance schedule changes and for IROPS. For advance schedule changes, I don't see this as "The Sky is Falling", even if still pretty unfriendly to customers. Business travelers who book close-in (when schedules have been pretty much finalized) will see almost no impact with respect to advance schedule changes (except for maybe crazy one-offs like the schedule changes happening now due to Coronavirus). And UA allows free schedule changes on changes as little as 30 minutes (more generous than DL even), so customers will still be able to rebook for free with changes of as little as 30 minutes (I expected to open this seeing the policy was UA could tell you they changed the schedule up to 25 hours and could tell you to go pound sand with respect to anything) or passengers will be able to take a credit for the full amount. For anyone flying even semi-frequently, this shouldn't be an issue (using a voucher). I can only speak for me but I personally have never requested a refund due to a schedule change; I've always simply rebooked on a more optimal flight (either better time, more MQMs, better equipment, etc.) and I would imagine most (maybe not all) destinations will have alternate options that still arrive the same day or within a few hours of the original ticket that will make being rebooked for free not a big deal that customers will simply be rebooked on to.

Where I could see this getting interesting is in day-of IROPs. Does this change give UA the ability to tell you "Well, your flight was canceled and we can't get you out till tomorrow but you know, hey, we can still get you there within 25 hours so no refund for you", even if getting somewhere 25 hours later is useless to the passenger and drives a what would be "Trip in Vain".

FlyDeltaMD88

It says no full refunds, I'm assuming they'll allow you to switch to a better flight if there's seats available?

ATOBTTR

Free schedule change or voucher for full amount.

readywhenyouare

What makes you think DL, AA, etc won't do the same thing?

xliioper

DL embeds the conditions for a refund (90 minute change) in their CoC and leaves the conditions for a free change as a policy issue (60 minutes). UA does the opposite and has the conditions for a free change in the CoC (30 minutes), but leaves the conditions for a refund as a policy issue.

Here is DL CoC --
"If there is a flight cancellation, diversion, delay of greater than 90 minutes, or that will cause a passenger to miss connections, Delta will (at passenger’s request) cancel the remaining ticket and refund the unused portion of the ticket and unused ancillary fees in the original form of payment in accordance with Rule 22"

Here is UA language --
"Schedule Change- When a Passenger’s Ticketed flight is affected because of a Schedule Change that modifies the original departure and/or arrival time by 30 minutes or more, UA will, at its election, arrange one of the following:

1. Provided that the dates of departure and arrival must be within 7 days of the originally scheduled dates of departure and arrival, respectively, transport the Passenger on its own flights, subject to availability, to the Destination, next Stopover point, or transfer point shown on its portion of the Ticket, without Stopover in the same class of service, at no additional cost to the Passenger;
2. When a Schedule Change results in the cancellation of all UA service between two cities, at UA’s sole discretion, UA may reroute Passengers over the lines of one or more carriers in an equivalent class of service;
3. Advise the Passenger that the value of his or her Ticket may be applied toward future travel on United within one year from the date of issue without a change or reissue fee; or
4. If the Passenger is not transported as provided in C) 1) or 2) above and does not choose to apply the value of his or her Ticket toward future travel as provided in C) 3) above, the Passenger will be eligible for a refund upon request. See Rule 27 A)."

While DL makes it clear the passenger can request a refund as an option. Item 4 above is unclear "If the Passenger is not transported" is at passenger's discretion or UA's. Apparently UA's believes that it is at their discretion.

cmd320

Lol, welcome to the Kirby era at United.

CPMaverick

Delta's CoC for one...

readywhenyouare

It's a contract of carriage, not the the Constitution. They can change whatever they want in it and have it apply to all bookings thereafter.

CPMaverick

Yes they can change things for future bookings. But no, it doesn't allow them to 'do the same thing' as UA, because UA has made it apply to all bookings.

NoStressHere

Bottom line as I read it. If UA cancels your flight, it will give you other options. Everybody does that now. But, UA now says, if they can still get you to the CONTRACTED destination within 25 hours, then you must take it. If you decide that waiting until the next day to fly is not going to work for you, they are saying TOUGH! You can get a credit to be used with 15 months. For frequent flyers on UA, they may not like it, but it works.

For those that do not travel regularly and need to fly TODAY - it is as close to immoral, illegal, wrong, stupid, Or for those that rarely use UA due to cities served, etc - again, tough!.

I could be wrong... but I do not see anyone following this route.