Good morning.

I'm in the middle of a restricted fare EWR-ORD-SFO-EWR trip. (I have business in Chicago today) Left last night, originally scheduled to return to EWR on Thursday night.

Tonight I am flying out for SFO.

My meeting for Thursday was canceled, so I tried to change my ticket and return home on Wednesday night instead. To make this change, UA.com asked for the large fare differential plus the $150 change fee.

I have a meeting in Sacramento on Wednesday afternoon and found a one way SMF-LAX-EWR (on UA) ticket for Wednesday night that was much less than the cost to change my original ticket. So I purchased that ticket.

When I went to UA.com to cancel the last segment of my original trip, UA was still asking for the change fee and fare differential (I understand why this is, and am fine with the policy), so I left my original ticket unchanged.

My question is, what is the best way to "fix" this without causing any trouble with UA or my wallet/MP account?

Should I simply no show in SFO and by that time already be home safe and sound on the east coast the night before?

Is it possible to call UA and ask for the value of that segment to be put on hold until I travel some other time (and pay the fee then)?

You can simply abandon the ticket and do nothing, or if it will have any value, you can call and cancel it. For most tickets, the remaining value will be on hold for a year from the original ticketing date, and when you want to use it, you'll then pay a $150 change fee. It's a domestic ticket, so the price of a roundtrip is usually half that of a one-way, so I am not sure why they would want to "refare" this ticket if you use only the outbound.

I don't know why you would have a problem with calling, as people's plans change all the time. Maybe someone else will be able to tell you if you will.

For future reference, it's sometimes cheaper to make the change after the outbound has been flown.

But of course that holds a risk that the fare you found for the change will no longer be there. If you were comfortable with what you found, you did the right thing.

As for cancelling, you can call to cancel, and you can reuse it later for a change fee. or you can Or just no-show it, but then you're throwing it away.

My problem with calling is that I don't want to be "discovered" that I have another return ticket already purchased on UA and thus draw the attention of revenue management.

I think I will call to see about the residual value of that leg, but only after I've completed my return tomorrow morning.

You have a legitimate change of plans and are flying back from a different airport entirely anyway. This is not a RM issue; don't worry about it. They're not going to come after you for abandoning the segment and taking a different set of flights home.

I agree. If you abandon segments regularly in an obvious attempt to save money, you might get some bad attention. But an occasion missed segment due to a legitimate change in plans is fine.