$250 Change Fee?
 

My friend with Silver status has a cancelled reservation. We called in to use the credit to book a new flight and was told the change fee was $250. I thought it was $150 but was told $150 for domestic and $250 for international. Could not find anything on the site. Anyone know about this? This is a paid flight, not an award flight.

This is very typical - it would have been stated in the fare rules when your friend bought the ticket. I've encountered many international tickets with $250 change fees.

It can be anything. I've seen $400 change fees for some tickets also.

If you have access to expertflyer or KVS, you can look up the rules for yourself... but the agent is probably right.

It was my impression that it was $150 for domestic and $250 for international on the cheap tickets.

EmailKid

This is very typical. Many of my int'l tickets come with the $250 change fee. :)

I haven't seen anything above $250 in a long time.

I had an international Z earlier in 2012 with a $400 change fee.

As others have said, that's pretty normal.

It's not on the web site as a general rule. Unlike award travel, change fees for paid travel are specific to the fare. Although the $150/$250 fees above are a good starting point, every fare could potentially have a different change fee. You have to look at the fare rules for the specific ticket you're buying to know what the change fee will be. This can be viewed on the website after you make the individual flight selections but before you purchase.

On top of that you'll have to pay the $250 with new money to be able to use the value of the old ticket (CO rule), UA used to let you 'pay' the change fee from remaining funds.

I had to shell out $250 recently. the new ticket was $500 less than the other, so I have that sitting as a credit. I wish I could have used the $250 from that. Can I use that 500 for an upgrade? anything besides a new ticket? how about a ticket for my son? (I think the answer is a big fat NO to all)

No to all.

I recently had to change dates on a trip to Istanbul and the $250 change fee was waived with out me asking. It was on a G fare.

Last month I called to "buy up" to a W fare (was $86) on an international flight and they told me I needed to pay a $250 change fee...

If you read through the above, you will see that nobody can answer your question directly because nobody knows where you are flying to/from, where you bought your ticket (what country) and what the fare rules were for the ticket you purchased.

That said, the $250 is a pretty standard change fee for many intl. fare bases on tickets purchased in the US. Remember, you actually will have the full value of the ticket to use, but must first pay the $250 in "new" money.

My change fee for an international A fare is $400.