chinatraderjmr

Sorry for this long rant and all the numbers but not sure how else to make my point.....O.K. It takes a lot for me to call something a "scam" but this is getting ridiculous. Like many here, I have cancelled non refundable tickets and ended up with a credit (minus the $200 fee) in the past. The last time I tried to use a credit, I booked a $600 fare to HNL and called to have my $529 credit applied. (so it should have cost me $600 - 529 + 200 = $271, right? I was told it does not work this way...you must book the new ticket using the credit off of the original cancelled PNR. Fine, only problem is when doing that, the best fare UA was showing to HNL was $1070. For the exact same flights, on the exact same days as the $600 fare. So basically, using the credit made it more expensive to travel then having no credit at all $1070 - 500 + 200 = $770 (so with the credit, $770, no credit, $600. After arguing with an agent and her supervisor, I got them to apply the $600 fare. Fine, not a scam but an anomaly??? Anything is possible with SHARES and strange things happen, its not always a conspiracy. Right?? hmmmm

NOW, a few weeks ago I bought my Brother a r/t ticket NYC-DXB to come visit for a week this summer. (EWR-IAD-DXB-ZRH-JFK) The outbound was booked into H class and upgraded with a GPU and I had the return booked into Z so a split fare. H,H,Z,Z.(I cant remember the exact fare basis but the return Z part was more restricted this making the whole ticket restricted). I paid what I consider a reasonable $4200 for this. (Especially cuz the return was on code shares operated by Swiss and they have a great C product for him). He is here now and we decided to extend his trip. I can cancel the return outright or just use the change flights function which is really the same thing as returning it and using the credit. So, requesting to change flights to new dates, UA offered following; unused ticket + $2410 + 250 (fee?) = 2660.00 for the new one way biz class return dates. Sounds O.K. I guess. One ways can be expensive and his unused return is worth $3029 so really, the new return is costing $5689 (3029 (credit) + 2410 +250) . BUT HERE IS THE PROBLEM, with NO return ticket being used, I can just out right buy him a brand new one way Z class for $2936 0n all UA or $3030 using the Swiss code shares. So UA is telling me his return ticket in Z class that we want to switch the dates on is worth only $86????? I know thats not true cuz reservations as well as looking at the fare breakdown tells me its worth 3029.00. So what good is this $3029 credit if using it makes the new ticket more expensive then having no credit to use at all?

Im sorry but it looks to me like this whole credit thing is just a great big SCAM . UA should be required to let us use any available fare before applying our credits. I find it hard to believe this is even legal? We should be able to use our credits on any available fare....that is clearly not the case.

Am I missing something here. Perhaps someone can set me straight on how these credits are supposed to work or know how to avoid these scam like fares?? All I know is I am disgusted. UA already has the $3000 for his return so its not like putting him on EK is gonna hurt them but I am certainly not giving them another dime. I Guess we just have to use the credit some other time and Ill buy him a return on EK or QR.....

bocastephen

Did you call the 1K line and have an agent do the reprice for you to take the website out of the equation?

In theory you should be able to cancel the return portion of the existing ticket, pay the fee, then have a voucher value to use against a new ticket. I would take the 'rebook' process out of the equation so you are using the 'clean' net value of the existing ticket against the clean cost of a new ticket.

Kacee

Well it sounds like a total rip-off, but can't rule out other explanations without more information. What fare class does he change into if you use "change flights"? Is it still a Z or are you paying up for D/C/J? And is the one-way you're looking at purchasing on the same flight, or can the difference be explained by different flight/different fare? Also, have you tried calling to do the change? Sometimes "change flights" malfunctions.

chinatraderjmr

Still Z but a one way Z fare. Both the change flights feature and the make new reservation feature BOTH offer one way Z fares for that date. Same flights, etc. (probably a different fare basis but so what??) Bottom line is making a whole new reservation is requiring almost the exact same payment in cash as using the $3000 credit. So its really working out to a new ticket for Aprx $3000 in Z or changing the already purchased ticket which is ending up at aprx $6000 for the same flights, same Z bucket, same same same...........

chinatraderjmr

NO....I didnt know this is possible. I thought you can only get a credit for the unused part of the first change??? Is what you suggest a policy or a favor some 1K agents will do?? It certainly makes a lot of cents (and dollars) to do as you suggest. Ill try that but isnt that also a way to circumvent the name change on a ticket???? The Vouchers are transferable, the ticket is not. It would be great if what yu suggest works but I'm a little skeptical. As far as having the 1K line manualy reprice, thats what I did with the Hawaii ticket this year but they made it clear it was against policy and a big favor r

qisu

any credit from a cancellation is in the name of the passenger. can only be used for the same passenger for future flights.

Kacee

Yes this is how it's generally worked for me (as recently as April). I don't know if they calculate a new roundtrip fare and deduct what's already been paid, or price as a one-way and apply the unused credit, but the net effect is I've always been able to apply the unused credit, paying only the fare differential (if any) and the change fee.

That's why this sounds like a possible IT malfunction.

GregMM

Wouldn't cancelling the return cause the outbound flight to be repriced as a one-way ticket, which would be much more than half of a round-trip since this is international, thus using up most of the value? That would make these two things very much different.

It's requiring an additional $2410, excluding change fees, so it's saying that it's worth $526, which is better than $86, but still a lot less than you would expect. How did you determine that the return is worth $3029? Are there fare rules from the original fare that this change violates, such as travel only on certain days of the week, during a certain range of dates, or certain times of day, causing a reprice to a higher fare for the whole itinerary?

chinatraderjmr

The outbound was worth aprx $950 + fees / taxes and the return was aprx $2600 + fees / taxes (which equalled exaclty $4202) This was what I saw when booking it as I checked the fare basis online and confirmed by 2 seperate agents on the phone. Had the outbound and return been booked all in economy, it would have been a V fare instead of an H and your right, then they would have repriced the outbound to a one way, same if I booked it in round trip business which woud have probably been a P or a Z under a different fare basis

cmculp

I recently had a very similar issue. I booked a ticket for my wife with an error; you all know how the date resets to an odd default when you change something else on the search. I didm't catch it and booked it. My wife caught it immediately, and I cancelled within 24 hours choosing the credit option.

Rebooking by changing the ticket (to apply the credit) yielded a fare 3 times higher than the same itinerary de novo. The 1K desk simply refunded the fare and I started over. So yes....flight credit has "issues."

chinatraderjmr

Many things have "issues" and most are honest mistakes....but this has been going on since at least the merger on 3/3/12 (and maybe even before) every time someone buys a ticket this way using a credit and does not know tot check the fares first without a credit, UA is charging money it has no right to. In essence it is over charging for each and every ticket bought this way and at best, its incredibly dishonest - at worst, i would think it is or should be illegal

UA-NYC

Time for you to dump UA! You have the means...does EK fly to Hawaii yet? I know that's one reason you rely on UA.

FlyWorld

Sorry this isn't helpful but I had an even worse experience trying to use a portion of an unused itinerary. You might recall when I was in DEL and abandoned the return from DEL-SFO then used miles to purchase a different route home. It took weeks and weeks of fighting and escalations just to get a department deep in the bowels of IAH to look at my case and tell me basically that I'd never be able to meet their criteria for being able to recover the value that was in the ticket. Front-line agents just said "there's nothing I can do." With UA, I'd routinely made changes/cancellations and had easily been able to apply that stored value to future trips without any difficulty. With CO, it became impossible. SCAM indeed.

Why you choose to give good money to CO given the options available to you is truly beyond me ...

alex_b

This is one of the reasons I generally take miles rather than vouchers. Last time (pmUA) I tried to use a $500 voucher I was sent I had to book into much more expensive booking classes vs an online travel agent (on the same flights) to be able to redeem the voucher. I figured that the $500 actually gave me around $200 of real value.

transportprof

Why is it that all of the SHARES malfunctions seem to result in higher revenue for the carrier at the expense of lower value for the customer? Think about it:

Auto-splitting of reservations with a companion CPU that often lose the ability to obtain the CPU;

Difficult and cumbersome codes for issuing vouchers for MX delays and cancellations, let alone WX amenities for 1K pax;

Now the use of flight credits seems to trigger huge fare increases in purchasing a new ticket.

These IT malfunctions remind me of the infamous Super Bowl wardrobe malfunction in that they occur accidentally on purpose.