WineCountryUA

Depending on status, there may be a change fee. If there would, better to make use of the 24-hour "free" change.
View award ticketing options and service fees

If this is an OW ticket, all stops need to be <24 hours.

DiverNina

Good morning,

This is probably a dumb question, but I'm new to UA, so here goes.

I booked award flights for June 2016:

MIA-FRA-JNB-WDH
WDH-JNB-FRA-MIA

Our intention is to get to Namibia/Botswana for a month long trip. One of our return flights: WDH-JNB was cancelled. I called and was rescheduled for an earlier flight (I'm not happy with it but it's the only one available).

I found a flight that works better for us on the outbound portion of the itinerary. It would mean changing carriers, from Lufthansa to South African Airways.

My question: am I allowed to change any portion of the itinerary now that there has been a change? Or am I only allowed to change the return portion of the itinerary? Or no changes at all?

Thanks.
D

sbm12

Officially, probably not. But if you can convince the agent that the change to the return reduces time at the site so the more convenient outbound helps make up for that you might be successful. I've managed similar on a revenue booking in the past.

Kacee

Subject to award availability, routing rules, and change fees, yes, you can change your itinerary.

toastedcoconut

Changed my flight today to a different time (same day) and incurred no fees. Going through the change flight flow again still doesn't prompt me for more money. Huh

joecool1885

Let me know if you figure out why. I changed a flight LAX-LIH a few months back after Hawaii went on an award sale. 11,000 mile return and no change fee. Of course it took me two phone calls to get the miles back.

Made me presume changes on awards were free, so just booked a saver flight March 31st last week figuring I could change it if March 30th opened up. March 30th opened today, and there's of course the change fee of $75 pp. Gah!

aoumd

I'm a UA M+ General Member/Kettle. I booked IAD-LAX-HNL a few weeks ago for February and my wife booked the return HNL-EWR for us (we'd take the train back to DC separately), as those were the few saver options available then.

There seems to be a lot more saver availability now. Additionally, we've been gifted additional miles. So much in fact, that we can now take a much more elaborate vacation for next year on points: IAD-LAX-LIH, spend a few days in LIH, (LIH-HNL paid), HNL for a few days, HNL-MAJ-KWA-KSA-PNI-TKK-GUM on the Island Hopper, spend a few days in GUM, then GUM-NRT-ORD-DCA (NRT-ORD has saver Biz on a 744 with upper deck seats available for the dates we'd want). I assume this would be three award bookings for each of us: IAD-LIH (22.5k saver Y) + HNL-GUM (25k saver Y) + GUM-DCA (65k saver Business).

To get all the necessary points, my wife and I would need to use the points I already used to book the HNL trip. I understand that completely canceling the trip and redepositing the funds is $200 per ticket, so 2 people x 2 PNRs = $800. However, CHANGES to a reservation including different origin/destination are only $100 per ticket, so 2 people x 2 PNRs = $400.

Can I say I want to change an existing PNR from being 2 people going from IAD to HNL in Y (45k points) to being one person going from GUM to DCA in Biz (65k points) and only pay $100 x 2 = $200 to do that on top of the 20,000 points? (And something similar with my wife converting our return into her single ticket for another 20k points + $200?). Or is this just such a convoluted "change" that they'd have to redeposit and re-pull the points, causing the fee to double?

Any experience is appreciated, even if the answer is "YMMV." Thanks!

noah

I can't comment on the change specifics.

But, could you book it so that it was a WAS-GUM with stop in LIH instead and spend fewer miles instead of 3 one-ways?

WineCountryUA

Yes a change is better (& cheaper) than cancel and redeposit.

Kacee

You can change everything except the passenger for $100.

Michilander

I will be looking for award flights to Europe for next fall when the windows open. Trip will be an open jaw.

As I understand it from reading award related threads, it is possible to book two one way awards, then have them combined into a single PNR. Is that correct?

I will also be keeping my eyes open for really good fares on the same route and if one comes up will book it and cancel the award. If it is open jaw, does it count as cancelling one award, or two?

Of course, I have a mileage run planned and hope to make Platinum for next year, in which case I could cancel the awards at no cost regardless, right?

Thanks.

Kacee

Combine two PNRs? No, you won't be able to do that. You can book a one-way and change it into a roundtrip by adding flights, but you can't combine two separate itineraries.

Michilander

OK, thanks. Can I add an open jaw return to an existing one way award reservation?

aCavalierInCoach

! Your refund requires special attention. Please contact the Electronic Support Desk at 1-800-300-1547 for assistance."

what generates this error? Trying to refund a 1-way JFK-JNB biz ticket on the website? Get your #$%! together United. You're wasting my time as well as your own.

nova08

I just encountered my first redeposit fee since dropping from 1K>Silver this year. One of the things I enjoyed with 1K was not worrying about these pesky fees.

I had a 4 segment rountrip with 2 segments booked in A and 2 booked in V. I used miles and upgraded the 2 in V. My trip was moved a week (under 21 days prior to the trip) and when I changed the reservation all 4 segments in A was cheaper than the A/V booking so I bought in A and received a voucher (of course after the change fee).

I was quotted by MP that to get the miles back I need to pay $125. I assume since I am no longer using the miles in UA's eye's this is a straight redeposit and not an award change?