eisnachm

^

Not having a fee for booking with short notice makes me want to use my miles and increases the value of them. In fact, close in booking is about the only use of miles domestically for me.

COSPILOT

I'm still thinking the same that I did before, so please help.

To me, the charge applies to "all members" for award travel booked prior to June 15th. Award travel booked after June 15th would be free for a 1K to cancel, but not a trip booked prior to June 15.

todorovic

I read it the same way you do and it doesn't make me happy at all since I have ~400k miles in booked tickets for travel after 6/15 and I am not sure we will be able to make those trips. If I end up paying $600 to get those miles back I am going to be pissed. It would be great if Scott would come back and clarify this further (although the OP is pretty clear that everybody will be hit with the cancellation fee regardless of status).

EDIT: I just re-read the OP and there is no mention of the above cancellation fee penalty for all members anymore. Unless I am going crazy I could swear that the note was there.

EDIT 2: However, there still seems to be a note that any changes to awards issued prior to 6/15 will be $75 for all members. There seems to be a way to work around this for 1Ks (cancel then book new) but it is still annoying to see the fee applied across the board when one does not exist now.

Firewind

Right. And didn't UA (temporarily) eliminate the close-in fee because DL did it (as UA used to match others' policies but seldom initiated them -- for example, the 1MM and 2MM recognition, which UA backed into after DL initiated, and the short-haul reduced mileage promotions that AA initiated)?

I wonder if this is anything like the dynamics of a fare increase -- e.g., if DL doesn't match, might UA cave? Keeping an eye on DL now.....

FightingIlliniUAL

Doubt it. Fare increases are easy to retract. New fees or fee increases require a bit of PR (as in UA Insider's case) and some significant IT programming. Blech.

Firewind

Well, then, given that the no-change-fee policy is a given at DL (so far -- insert fingers crossed icon here) then maybe the alternative is pressure against this, as we were successful with re the 500-mile minimum earn, which DL was first to initiate, and then maintained throughout that round of controversy. Talking about a protracted round, of course.

todorovic

The official .bomb page confirms that the status of the account holder whose miles were used for booking determines the fees. From the site:

uastarflyer

They did so because they know there's more gained via the close-in fee than lost by lightly tweaking other fees.

This is a net loser of a change, particularly to 1P Gold UA flyers.

Renard

The reintroduction of the close in fee for redemption is a bummer. This must be one of those changes that $mi$ek spoke of.... But only the finance people at WHQ in Chicago are liking this change. I know it would make me think twice if I had to pay it. Perhaps they prefer to keep my miles on the book?

The reduction of punitive fees for all elite classes is a big plus. The redeposit fees for 1P and 2P are outrageously high

uastarflyer

It's doubly insulting because within 21 days stingy SMI/J is only going to have Standard (double mile) awards available, and then on top of that slaps you with a fee.

I sincerely hope he fails to unite the airline and gets sent packing as a result.

izzik

This entire merger has been nothing but horrible for 1Ps.

tormapleaf

I just got this and I'm shocked. What an about face. If there is one fee which is more bogus than any other, this is it. Building a better airline, my rear. I think everyone needs to email Mr. Smisek and let him know how you feel about this:

[email protected]

buaya00

Its free for 1Ks/Plats prior to June 15 and free for 1Ks/Plats from June 15th...period

EsquireFlyer

Agreed on all points!!

eponymous_coward

No, it's not, says the 1P/Gold who changed an award to different flight three times on CO for $0 in the past few months, instead of $450 if it had been under UA's rules. (I switched to an EK flight from a TG flight when availability opened on preferred dates, twice after an even better date showed up, and I switched from an existing SQ flight to a new, better timed one that started up after my award was ticketed.)

UA's award fees were a big fat middle finger to < 1Ks. "Oh, you see a better set of flights for your existing award? That'll be $150, please. Thanks for flying 99,999 miles with us last year, Mr. 1P."

The only thing left is to align the "simple changes" policies with CO and I am fine. I would rather pay $25 for a close-in award than $150 to change an award. Yeah, in an ideal world, no close-in fee at all. If we could get that removed I'd be happy. But $150 for changes as a 1P? Really? That's what you had before on UA before this set of changes. Pretty lame if you ask me.