pbr6891

A couple of weeks back I called United Reservations to make a change to a travel itinerary that was originally booked by my company's travel agent.

The conversation over the phone was pretty good , minimum wait time, agent understanding the changes I wanted to make and proceeding to change the reservation in a very professional and effective manner ..

The agent noted that it was a travel agent booked ticket and asked me to confirm that I wanted them to take it over .. to which I said yes , and she proceeds to make the change and collect from me the change fee and fare difference.

A few days go by and I notice a separate 25$ charge to my credit card ...

Thinking this was some sort of mistake because as a "1K the phone reservation fee is waived" I send an email to UA ....

As a week went by and I still didnt have a reply I decided to call today ...

No wait time, agent cannot find the charge from the 016# showing on my credit card statement ... Give her the 016# of the fare/fee add collect which helps and she comes back with the following :

The 25$ fee is because you changed your reservation over the phone ....

As I remind her that as a 1K phone reservation fees are waived she proceeds to say that somehow this charge is not a "phone reservation fee" (which is waived) but rather a fee because UA was changing a TA issued ticket...

From my perspective this is a textbook case of either "nickel and diming nonsense" or "making stuff up as needed"

Has anyone encountered that situation ? What was your outcome ?

Is this one of UA's "changes that we are going to like" ?

Does anyone know where to find the actual terms and conditions that spell out the non-waivable aspect of the fee associated with this specific case (changing a TA issued ticket) ?

The change here was made prior to beginning of travel ... does anyone knows if the same "change fee policy" would apply for changes made after travel started ? (I believe at that point UA -HAS- taken over the reservation)

amartin1979

Simple: Dispute it with your credit card company.

mherdeg

There is indeed a fee (is it $25?) for "taking over a travel agent's ticket" that is not advertised as one which is waived for 1K members. I'm surprised the phone res agent you talked to didn't advise you of this fee or what they were doing!

In order for a UA agent to make changes before travel has begun to a United ticket issued by, say, Citi Thank You Points Travel or Carlson Wagonlit, the agent must "take over the ticket" ... a process I've never really understood at any technical level.

The story is that if you have an agency-booked ticket, the airline should strongly encourage you to make any change requests via the agency. This might be cheaper or more expensive than making the change directly with United (cheaper is rare).

If you really don't want to make changes via your travel agent, UA can "take over" the ticket or the agency can "push" the reservation to UA, at which point further changes to the itinerary are outside of the agency's control. I think maybe if you end up having the airline "take over the ticket" the agency might no longer earn a commission on the fare (not that there are really commissions on domestic tickets these days).

I feel like this protocol used to be documented on united.com, but I can no longer find it on the new united.com (née continental.com).

The rules for changes after travel has begun are a little trickier, not just because a ticket might or might not still appear agency-issued but also because new sets of rules are in effect which often allow lower fees (SDC, changing routing, etc).

kenn0223

PMUA wouldn't have even touched your ticket if it was issued by a TA and you hadn't begun travel (T-24h before your first departure). The new UA will do it anytime but charges $25. This presumably is to reimburse them for the commission they paid your Travel Agent to sell you the ticket. The deal is with Travel Agents is that they sell tickets, make their commission, and as part of that deal they are responsible for managing the ticket until departure.

I think the fee is reasonable (and has been charged to me as a GS). If you wanted to use UA to manage your ticket you should have bought it though them.

BBFD

Not an option for many of us who have employers that dictate we use providers such as Amex or Carlson. In that case it is good to know that the agency should be the first step in order to avoid fees. I had not realized that.

TerryK

Misleading thread title. The $25 fee is to take over TA booking by phone, not phone reservation fee. Most airlines, especially international ones, will simply refuse to touch a TA booking prior to travel. UA allows it with a fee.

There is no fee after travel commences.

You've got it backwards. UA doesn't provide a blanket fee waiver for 1K. UA waives fees for 1K for specific services, such as award redeposits, phone booking etc. TA booking take over fee is never listed as waived for 1K. There is no change from PMUA to current UA. A list of fees waived is here:

http://www.united.com/web/en-US/cont...r/default.aspx

mherdeg

Only ever needed to do this twice, but had no difficulty in 2009 and 2010 getting PMUA to take over a travel agent-issued ticket with first travel date in the distant future (not within 24 hours). Did pay a fee (think it was $25).

This was back in the day when Citi Thank You Points allowed fixed-flight redemptions for $2700 in travel @ 90,000 points. People used to earn 90k Citi points by spending $18k on 5x categories with the Citi MTVu card (restaurants, move threaters, bookstores including Amazon); then they would purchase a flight that was exactly $2700 + excise taxes and that had at least one nonrefundable segment (outbound in business class, return in coach); then they would call UA to have UA take over the itinerary ($25), assess a change fee ($150), and mail them a voucher for the remainder ($2525). This worked out to about 14% cash back on restaurant purchases and was totally unsustainable for Citi, but also totally awesome. People reported it worked fine, except that UA phone agents would occasionally say "oof, your travel agent won't like this...".

escapefromphl

And they often charge their own fee to make a change. In my case more than $25.

gobluetwo

I wouldn't say it's a misleading thread title at all. From the OP's perspective (and mine, frankly), it appeared to be a phone ticketing fee, as he was not aware of the fee for taking over a TA-issued ticket. Not realizing this was a separate and distinct transaction with a separate fee, the OP asked an honest question, which was clarified.

ccharles

Interesting, I do my own bookings except when I travel several times a year in connection with volunteer work for an entity which requires using Amex, since they are paying. On those trips I've never had an issue or a fee for later changes to the itinerary made directly through United. I basically book the original with Amex and as soon as it shows up in my United account (usually about 15 mins after booking) I can treat it like a UA-made reservation. No one has ever mentioned 'taking over the ticket' or anything like that.

TerryK

OP knew about the fact that it was a separate fee.

gobluetwo

OP also indicated he thought they were "making stuff up as needed," suggesting that he thought they were just coming up with a way to charge for a phone reservation. No point arguing further, though. Neither of us is going to give in

RichardInSF

First of all, PMUA has done this for me in the past, so the claim that PMUA wouldn't do it, at least in my experience, is not true. There was no charge.

Second, travel agents don't get commissions from UA any more.

chasbondy

I understand the fee, its expensive to leave someone on an 800 line for 42 minutes before picking up the pnone

Ocn Vw 1K

Thread title clarified as to the type of fee involved here. Ocn Vw 1K.