PirateJeff

I have a UA flight leaving next week (international Z fare) that I need to push out by (probably) 1 day. Are they going to try to reprice me into another fare or do you think they'll be reasonable?

jasonp622

What is your status and what route are you talking about, yiu may be able to same day change twice

lax2010

Where does the "twice" come from? Some kind of new SDC rule?

Kacee

Why would it be "unreasonable" for UA to apply its fare rules exactly as they are written? And yes, that includes a reprice and a change fee for the change you are contemplating.

As mentioned above, you may be able to SDC without incurring those fees. Same Day Change

sbm12

They will be completely reasonable and reprice the whole thing on you. Sucks, but that's what comes with a discounted ticket.

Depending on the market you may be able to pay to SDC twice, effectively pushing it to the later date for much less than the change fee + fare difference. But if it is a market with only 1x daily service or if the flights are very full in biz already that may not work.
Nothing new about it; SDC can happen multiple times on the same itinerary.

anishub

You never know, the system might offer you a higher fare bucket without any fees. Never know until you try. Also, you may be able to get better timing as well as better seat on the new itinerary, YMMV!!

If your destination is once a day service, you may call after your flight (not more than 20 hours after) and an agent 'could' fix the new flight, manually, SDC.

Kacee

No show? On a Z fare? I wouldn't recommend that.

jasonp622

If he wanted to leave 24 hours later,

PirateJeff

Fair enough, here's a related question. I understand that UA allows a refund within 24 hours of purchase. If I am uncertain of the exact day I want to leave at this exact moment (eg. 1 day, 2 days, 3 days later) could I change the ticket and then make further changes within succeeding 24 hour windows if necessary?

Right now I know I need to change the ticket and will pay the extra cost and/or fees, but do not want to change it and end up getting his continually if I need to make another change the next day. I am trying to work around an emergency situation that is rather fluid at the moment and want to lock in my seats ASAP

cmn.jcs

You can book, wait 24 hours minus some small amount of time, cancel for free, then rebook. Just doing a change doesn't reset the clock.

ETA: to clarify, this process works with new reservations (i.e. <24 hours since booking). Doesn't really help OP.

PirateJeff

Does changing my ticket (+$2000 more than my original purchase and more than likely in a higher fare bucket since Z isn't much available on shorter notice) as a new ticket purchase, and thus entitle me to cancel, rebook, cancel, rebook, wash and repeat?

If memory serves, when I have changed full fare F tickets in the past a new ticket is issued...

sbm12

No.
No. Rebooking is not the same as buying a new ticket. Ditto for a reissue based on a change.

You can, however, call in and tell them that you intend to change the ticket but do not yet know what the new travel itinerary is. At that point they will remove the segments from the trip but leave the ticket intact as a shell. Once you have new plans figured out you would call in and have those flights put in to the shell. They'll charge you the change fee and any fare difference between the value of what you originally booked and the new itinerary.

Keep in mind that if you're trying to change to a new biz ticket there is a very real chance that last minute will mean C/D/J fares, not P/Z.

I do not believe this will work when attempting to use the value of the existing reservation.

PirateJeff

Problem is that I have a new itinerary selected and there are only 2 seats remaining (and I need 2). It should be safe and I am willing to bite the bullet and pay for the higher fare class, but in the event there is another last minute change to my plans I may be SOL and end up paying yet more fees.

It does not seem like I have any easy solutions

cmn.jcs

Good point, thanks. I'll clarify that it's in regards to new bookings.

sbm12

Correct. Sorry.