KenInEscazu

I live outside the US, but most of my travel originates there. I buy RT tickets because it's easier and often cheaper. Although I have lived in Costa Rica, I am what they call a "perpetual tourist." That means that I must leave the country every 90 days and stay gone at least 3 days.

The airlines are required to confirm a return ticket when departing the USA, or the Costa Rican government can fine them (or so I've been told a million times). They always require that I prove I'm leaving when I fly in here, whether from the USA or any other country. That proof requires a ticket number if not on the same airline which I'm flying in.

As for Pre, I'm 100% since they tied it to GE. Sometimes my BP doesn't say Pre Check, but I still always get the 3 beeps. The surprise regular security line may come upon me one day, but thus far I've been quite lucky.

For those of us who prefer Copa, btw, they do NOT participate in Pre. It's the only downside to using them for flights to/from LA, but it's one I'm willing to tolerate as my tiny little bit of punishment for UA removing CPU/RPU availability from northern South America to USA flights. I have vowed not to fly UA to/from the USA, even when departing from Central America. Once there, it's different, but a whole lot of my annual revenue will now be going into Copa's pockets instead of UA's.

jamar

Given the closeness of the Copa/UA relationship, does that really make a difference?

pmanisa

If I change my address to non US now (in jan 2014), will there be any problem?

coolcoil

Yes, it does. COPA and UA are completely separate companies. A ticket bought on COPA instead of UA means no revenue for UA.

KenInEscazu

I'm still unable to buy anything on united.com. Others have reported that they live outside the USA, but have CC billing addresses in the states and have no problem.

I talked to UA about this, and they advised me to delete all of my saved cards, then reenter them. I did that. A friend here also advised me to change my billing country in my profile to United States, and my preferred language as English. My billing preference was already U.S., but changing to English did result in my notices coming in my native English again.

Today I tried to buy a ticket, but the system once again tried to use my Costa Rican home address as my billing address. The agent with whom I spoke started the, "Try deleting your CC info..." line. I told her that I had already done that. She couldn't figure it out, booked my ticket and transferred me to tech support. They opened a ticket on it saying, "It should work."

I tried to FareLock a trip tonight for April, but it won't even let me do that. This is going to be a long year if I have to phone in every time I need to do anything. ::heavy sigh::

bryanwallace

you can still get tsa pre i can vouch for that.

one drawback i had,is compensation vouchers for overseas were given as 10% discounts rather than a $ value. dont know if that still is the case

gnaget

I have had zero problems over 3 years. Sometimes when I am in Japan and not logged in (or have been logged out is more likely) and quote a flight and get JPY and then proceed to payment it will bump me back to requote it in USD because of my billing address.

Why don't you just ensure that the correct billing address appears on the payment page?

I get promotional emails in both English and Japanese.

Also I have had TSA Pre from the early days even before I got Global Entry.

UA1KPHL

Changed my address to foreign address now but i still have US based credit cards and now i cant book online. when i try to purchase it says billing address is too long more than 35 characters plesse correct. but i am still using my US based address for billing. i had to call in three times to book so far.

KenInEscazu

My saved payment methods always included my US billing address, but since changing my M+ residence address I have gone back and deleted them, then entered them again with my US address. Same result.

That is EXACTLY the problem I am having. When the problem continued yesterday, that's when I contacted tech support. Have you done so? They entered a new issue ticket for me. Perhaps if everyone having this problem contacts them, then there will be more of a sense of urgency to fix it.

weirdlyndon

Waiting until I get my 1K card in the mail to swap address. I already did a 24 hour test of my int'l address, and immediately 4 UA segment requirement, and PQD line item disappeared.

rankourabu

So do people think that UA will simply let people "move" this year without requiring any proof, moreover, let people book tickets with US-based billing addresses while "living" overseas ??
If so, whats the point of PQD if every one who wants to will circumvent the rules anyway...

weirdlyndon

Can't be any harder than what CBP asked me for during my Global Entry interview, which was a cable or utility bill listing the address. I could arrange that for my int'l address.

KenInEscazu

I think it will depend on how many abusers there are. Personally, I think the number could easily appear to be much larger than it is in reality if one relies on the posts on these pages to make that observation.

As big as this forum and others have become, they still represent a very small fraction of the overall FF numbers. As is often said, most people fly to get somewhere. Many probably don't even know about most of the recent changes to the M+ redemption rules, plans for removal of IFE and installation of satellite WiFi, qualification for Premier status requiring PQDs, etc.

I hope that this exclusive benefit of foreign residence isn't abused to the point that UA just eliminates it. If they want proof, that's easy. Any legitimate (and many illegitimate) foreign residents can provide that.

bmw303

Is that true? I would think that there is some revenue sharing agreement.

KenInEscazu

Only on codeshare flights, if I understand it correctly. If you think about it in the reverse (Copa sharing revenue on all UA flights), then it makes sense that they do not.