Feb 25, 2022, 9:47 am
Last edit by: WineCountryUA
Rule 5 Cancellation of Reservations
- In addition to exercising any of its remedies in Rule 6 K) below, UA reserves the right to cancel bookings and/or reservations which it deems fraudulent, abusive, illogical, fictitious, which are booked and/or reserved with no intention of flying, or for which the passenger makes a misrepresentation without notice to the passenger or the individual making the booking. The types of improper reservations that UA will cancel without notice include, but are not limited to: reservations made without having been requested by or on behalf of the named passenger; reservations made to hold or block seats for the purpose of obtaining lower fares, MP award inventory, travel certificates, or upgrades that may not otherwise be available; reservations made to manipulate, abuse, or circumvent any of UA’s fare rules, policies or provisions; reservations made for the same passenger on flights traveling on or about the same date between one or more of the same or nearby origin or destination cities; and reservations with connections that depart before the arrival on the inbound flight.
[Consolidated] - Duplicated / double / impossible reservations -- What will UA do?
Apr 21, 2024, 1:11 pm
#286
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Oct 2001
Location: Austin, TX
Posts: 21,388
When trying to adjust the final destination of an already multi-city international booking, the price of the flight triples. It's cheaper to just ghost the last leg of the return flight, and book a separate 1-way flight to the final city I need to go. This is on the return flight. A traveling companion with only a carry-on will take care of getting my checked bag to it's final destination. Is there any consequence/penalty for this?
Consequences? You mean, besides the fact that United will detect this and cancel one of the overlapping bookings? And the fact that you're not ticketed to the hidden city, so UA is not obligated to deliver you there? (If you're booked to, say, Austin, UA only has to get you to Austin; they can change your flight to go XXX-IAH-AUS instead of XXX-IAD-AUS and they're within their rights).
Other than that, it's fine, provided you don't make a habit of it. But in practice, it requires taking another airline for that last leg.
All of that said: if you're relying on the United flight change tool to tell you how much it will cost to make a change -- it gives absolutely bonkers results sometimes. For something like what you're describing, you'll want to call to find the price. Also, if there have been any substantial schedule changes, you may be able to get them to drop the last leg, or even route you to your correct destination if it's nearby your currently-ticketed one.
Apr 21, 2024, 1:12 pm
#287
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Aug 2017
Programs: AS 75K, DL Silver, UA Platinum, Hilton Gold, Hyatt Discoverist, Marriott Platinum + LT Gold
Posts: 10,496
All ticketed on UA? Very likely at least one ticket will be cancelled and you will get an email warning you such actions will be taken on your behalf if you do not fix your tickets conflict.
Last edited by WineCountryUA; Apr 21, 2024 at 1:35 pm Reason: cleanup after merge; thanks for the link
Apr 21, 2024, 1:33 pm
#288
Moderator: United Airlines
Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: SFO
Programs: UA Plat 1.995MM, Hyatt Discoverist, Marriott Plat/LT Gold, Hilton Silver, IHG Plat
Posts: 66,831
Welcome to FT!, juliebluet
Don't do a overlapping / duplicate booking with UA or (AA / DL for that matter) as the others have explained.
If you are going to do a duplicate booking, do it with a different carriers.
The other alternative is to first call and find out out a change will costs, as mentioned the online change tool is flaky especially for complex itins. Have you flown any legs yet? That's another case where the online can return strange, incorrect pricing.
Don't do a overlapping / duplicate booking with UA or (AA / DL for that matter) as the others have explained.
If you are going to do a duplicate booking, do it with a different carriers.
The other alternative is to first call and find out out a change will costs, as mentioned the online change tool is flaky especially for complex itins. Have you flown any legs yet? That's another case where the online can return strange, incorrect pricing.
Apr 21, 2024, 1:44 pm
#289
Join Date: Apr 2024
Posts: 2
Thanks - I did try calling UA when I first attempted to make the change and got the 'special' price - the ticketing agent got the same result, so calling wasn't much help. So per 2 responses already - it sounds like the key is booking the last let on a different airline. Any cases where airlines share this data and one of the flights could get cancelled? None of the legs have been flown yet - departure is May 6 - return flight June 10.
Apr 21, 2024, 2:01 pm
#290
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Oct 2001
Location: Austin, TX
Posts: 21,388
If the last leg is a domestic flight, which is my takeaway from what you've posted, I haven't heard of any such cases, and it would surprise me immensely if they cooperated at that level -- and, in fact, it might lead to antitrust scrutiny if they were to try it.