emcampbe

If you miss the check in deadline, can't UA cancel the reservation at that point?

Even if you are checked in, the reservation would be canceled when the gate agent closes out the flight. That can be at the departure time, before or if delayed, even after. They can close the door as early as T-15 for domestic flights, and T-30 for international - the flight may be closed in the computer after that. If the gate agent offloads, and then closes the flight at T-10, for example, and the reservation isn't refundable after departure, believe at that point it would become a non-refundable.

WaxComb

What fare rules are on your ticket?

I have a refundable ticket and it says:

which means I can no show still get a refund until 11/18/2015 (a year after I was ticketed). Please correct me if I'm wrong.

Ari

That's just the endorsement line; it doesn't tell you the specific fare rules.

But most UA fares that just say "REFUNDABLE" in the endorsement line are fully flexible and permit no-penalty no-showing.

kenn0223

All UA tickets expire one year from they date they were issued. If you have a refundable ticket the refund must be requested before the ticket expires. The dates/times of the actual flights are irrelevant.

UA does not have a specific no-show penalty on any of their tickets. A non-refundable (or refundable with a fee) ticket will have 0VALUAFTDPT in the endorsement. This reservation associated with this ticket must be canceled before flight departure else all value is forfeited. If the ticket is endorsed with /-REFUNDABLE-/ then you just have to request the refund before the ticket expires (1 year from issuance).

Refundable tickets don't, at any point, automatically convert to non-refundable. A ticket would have to be reissued as a non-refundable ticket and this would only happen if there was some sort of change that involved a non-refundable fare.

For example...

You buy a ticket on December 1, 2014, and that ticket is endorsed /-REFUNDABLE-/, for a flight at 7pm on December 3, 2014. You can...
- Take the flight as scheduled,
- Cancel before the flight and get a refund,
- Cancel after the flight and get a refund so long as you request the refund before December 1, 2015
- Check-in, not board the flight, and get a refund so long as the refund is requested before December 1, 2015

vortix

I ran the numbers on a particular international flight I was looking at. The flex fare was $250 more than the usual "nonrefundable" fare. With the fare rules on this flight, this essentially buys the ability to cancel or change the ticket for an additional $300 fee (which in this case happens to be the same cost to change a nonrefundable ticket). Essentially the $250 premium gives you the ability to receive a refund instead of flight credit that must be used in the next 12 months.

Hipplewm

First, I have searched and read probably 15 threads on it and I still don't fully understand the fare rule gibberish

I recently came over from Delta and I am buying my first set of tickets

I FREQUENTLY change tickets, rebook, cancel, rebook, change, cancel again, then maybe fly. That is just on my trip to the airport.

Is there any way I can comfortably use flexible fares?

It seems I am pretty stuck on unrestricted, even though it says flexible is refundable, sometimes the refund fee might be more than the ticket in some cases.

I am on plat status match and will meet the mileage on the 4th day of the trial. I might make 1K by end of the year. Is there any way to waive some of these fees?


Thanks,
William

mahasamatman

If you change and cancel your tickets that much, you're pretty much stuck with paying lots of fees or purchasing full Y. AFAIK, United doesn't waive change fees for anyone.

"Flexible" is basically a meaningless marketing term. You have to read the fare rules for each and every ticket you purchase to find out the change fees and cancellation fees.

mduell

Elite status doesn't waive any of the revenue fare fees other than the phone booking fee.

Often1

Be careful of marketing jargon such as "flexible". Read the fare rules for the specific fare you are purchasing.

Boo_Radley

+1. The only way you can really be sure is to read the fare rules. If I'm in the market for a fare with more flexibility than the usual USD200 change fee, I'll pull up the fare rules and do a search on the string "USD" to see what's up with that particular fare. Furthermore, the fare class itself isn't entirely indicative of the fare penalties; I've seen H fares that were fully refundable. That said, I *think* (someone correct me on this) Y, B, J, and F will always be changeable / refundable without penalty.

transportprof

Not if the new ticked were bought with credit from a restricted fare that had been previously canceled.

Kacee

Agree with all the comments about the necessity of reading the fare rules.

You still have to check fare basis and fare rules. I've seen B's that are not fee-free and F/J with underlying economy basis.

Hipplewm

OK, seems my worst fears were realized then....

Unrestricted for me, I probably make 85% of my flights on the way to the airport using my Phone or calling the cust number. I don't have the time or inclination to be worried about reading some fare rule thing

I guess upgrades and tons of miles are in my future, just hope the boss doesn't mind slightly higher fares than what I was paying on Delta..... even though i always booked refundable on Delta.


Thanks for your help

mahasamatman

If you're booking on the way to the airport, there's no issue because all fares are 100% refundable if cancelled within 24 hours. If you're calling to book for a flight outside that range, just ask them to book a fare with no change or cancellation fees.

Hipplewm

That is fine for the first leg, but the 2nd, 3rd and 4th legs are where the problem is. I could wait for all of them but I have gotten myself in a pinch, so I try and at least make a flight plan once my schedule is known, then iterate on it from there if possible.

What I would do on Delta is just make a new ticket as it was easy on the phone, then call cust service and have them refund whatever I didn't use.

Probably not the most elegant solution, but you do what you got to do