UA taking "ownership" / "control" of a reservation made by a TA for a ($50) fee?
 

Is it possible to take over 'ownership' of a reservation once it has already been booked by a travel agency and a tick has been issued? I have a ticket issued by a travel agency I no longer work with and I would like to take ownership of the reservation. It's paid for already, I just no longer work with the agency that made it for me.

Does anyone have any tips to on how I could go about this?

i have done this once when i wanted to change my flight and the travel agency was quoting me a much higher price than UA.com. UA charged a $50 fee for them to take control of the ticket and make the change, but the overall cost was still much lower than what the TA was quoting me.

Its much easier for the agency to 'release' ownership to the airline.

It also depends on what you mean by ownership.

If you have a Mileage Plus number associated with the reservation, you can see the reservation in the "my reservations" section. From there, you should be able to select seats, apply upgrades, etc. Even if you don't have an MP number, I suspect you can get access with just your PNR and last name, though others may know better.

I have to book through my company's travel agency, but once the reservation is created and ticketed, that's the last time I work with them. I don't know if I have ever tried to change an actual flight by myself, but I always do seat selection, upgrades, and check-in through UA.com

Yes, well I no longer do business with the travel agency in question and I would prefer that they be completely out of the loop on all my travel, and that 'ownership' comes to me. The ticket is in my United Account of course but I would prefer for the agency to not have any more control on the ticket. So it sounds like I can call United and for $50 take ownership of it.. cool

I am not sure fully what you mean by take "ownership" but sometimes my travel is booked by another travel agency and does not show up in my profile. I add by going under "Manage Reservations" and at the bottom, I can fill in the Confirmation Number and my Last Name. Once I find the reservation, I can add my MP number which then gives me complete control. The reservation will show up under my profile and I then have the full ability to change seats, flights, etc...

New fees?
 

I was looking at seeing what changes I could make tonight (after I already changed my flight earlier today) as a lowly Gold and I noticed that it wants $50 if I change my flight again. For some reason I think I could do unlimited SDC before with no fee. Is this a new thing? I haven't noticed it until today.

Thanks,
SFOPaul

Have you done multiple SDCs before? I admit, I've never changed more than once for SDC, but they would presumably charge a new change fee each time you request an SDC. So if you make changes at two different times, you would pay two SDC fees.

For regular ticket changes (i.e. not SDC), they charge the fee each time they reissue. So if you were to make multiple changes to an itinerary at the same time (say, you change both the outbound and return by a day), you'd only be charged once. But if you change the outbound date this morning, and call back a few hours later to change the return, you'd be charged the fee a second time.

Website glitch, just call premier line and agent will do it for you without charge.

I apologize - didn't realize you said gold. SDC should be free. Should be able to use it multiple times. Of course, same fare class needs to be available - if not, you do have to pay the fare difference. However, I've never seen the web site or mobile app proactively offer changes to flights unless the same fare class was available - you usually need an agent to do that.

Does sound like a glitch - a call should do it.

Golden Path
 

I changed today's flight a few hours ago. Existing Reservations - Change Flights would only book me into a higher fare class (U) for a substantial fare difference. Expert Mode wasn't working in this view (UA's code base must be a nightmare), but ExpertFlyer.com easily confirmed that my original fare class was available. I was able to make the change for free via the change flights option as part of the Check-In sequence. (It didn't matter that I was already checked in.)

I finally learned the word for this. When Steve Jobs would demo a buggy prototype (e.g. the first iPhone) he locked into muscle memory the one sequence they were sure wouldn't crash. At Apple they called this the "golden path."

Was your original ticket issued by a corporate TA?

I coincidentally encountered a $50 fee yesterday that was new to me. In changing an itinerary directly through UA that was originally issued by my corporate TA, I was told I had to pay a $50 "transfer fee" for UA to take control of the ticket from the corporate TA.

I think I have done this several times in the past with no such fee. Perhaps this is what the OP is referring to.

Anyone else aware of this fee, and if so, has it been around for very long?

It's been around for awhile -- I don't use a TA but my coworkers will and we pay the fee if we want UA to take over. However, I don't ever remember paying for it for SDC although I rarely take over my coworkers tickets in the first place.

Fare basis is not relevant to SDC. If a seat is available and it's not oversold, then it's yours.

The corporate "takeover" fee is not applicable for SDC.

The change flights link no longer works.

Completely false.