Options with minor schedule change?
Aug 7, 2017, 10:49 pm
#16
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: San Francisco
Programs: All-Around Kettle
Posts: 3,287
In general, you can change flights for free if the schedule changes by 30 minutes or more, and request a refund if the schedule changes to two hours or more. See https://www.united.com/web/en-US/con...le-change.aspx.
The CoC mentions the 30 minute fee-free change, but seems to be silent on demanding a refund:
The CoC mentions the 30 minute fee-free change, but seems to be silent on demanding a refund:
Originally Posted by CoC
Schedule Change- When a Passenger’s Ticketed flight is affected because of a Schedule Change that modifies the original departure and/or arrival time by 30 minutes or more, UA will, at its election, arrange one of the following:
Provided that the dates of departure and arrival must be within 7 days of the originally scheduled dates of departure and arrival, respectively, transport the Passenger on its own flights, subject to availability, to the Destination, next Stopover point, or transfer point shown on its portion of the Ticket, without Stopover in the same class of service, at no additional cost to the Passenger;
When a Schedule Change results in the cancellation of all UA service between two cities, at UA’s sole discretion, UA may reroute Passengers over the lines of one or more carriers in an equivalent class of service;
Advise the Passenger that the value of his or her Ticket may be applied toward future travel on United within one year from the date of issue without a change or reissue fee; or
If the Passenger is not transported as provided in C) 1) or 2) above and does not choose to apply the value of his or her Ticket toward future travel as provided in C) 3) above, the Passenger will be eligible for a refund upon request. See Rule 27 A).
Provided that the dates of departure and arrival must be within 7 days of the originally scheduled dates of departure and arrival, respectively, transport the Passenger on its own flights, subject to availability, to the Destination, next Stopover point, or transfer point shown on its portion of the Ticket, without Stopover in the same class of service, at no additional cost to the Passenger;
When a Schedule Change results in the cancellation of all UA service between two cities, at UA’s sole discretion, UA may reroute Passengers over the lines of one or more carriers in an equivalent class of service;
Advise the Passenger that the value of his or her Ticket may be applied toward future travel on United within one year from the date of issue without a change or reissue fee; or
If the Passenger is not transported as provided in C) 1) or 2) above and does not choose to apply the value of his or her Ticket toward future travel as provided in C) 3) above, the Passenger will be eligible for a refund upon request. See Rule 27 A).
Last edited by nnn; Aug 7, 2017 at 11:03 pm Reason: Added CoC quotations
Aug 8, 2017, 7:54 am
#17
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I thought the new CoC did not cover plane changes, but did cover change of carrier (mainline to regional, and v.v.). I think the new verbiage cited above re: different configurations or class of service is a tough one to force through.
Last edited by aacharya; Aug 8, 2017 at 7:59 am
Aug 8, 2017, 8:04 am
#18
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"Substitution of aircraft type that provides different classes of service or different seat configurations"
The rule (24) is a bit murky as to what this really means. Note that the remedies for IRROPS are different from those for a Schedule Change.
Aug 8, 2017, 8:19 am
#19
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: EWR
Programs: Marriott Bonvoy Lifetime Gold (Current Platinum), United Mileage Plus, Avis Preferred
Posts: 850
I mean, it always comes down to the agents too, despite all the rules and such. There are people on here who claim to have had continued success with 1-5min changes. Since you had the equipment change (and any time changes), I suspect you can get what you're looking for.
I have a flight from EWR-TPA in November, and the schedule change was between 10 and 13 minutes arrival/departure.
Our original arrival time was 9:49 PM, and it was changed to 9:59 PM. The second agent I spoke to moved us to a much earlier flight, now we are arriving at 1:48 PM. Since we are driving to Walt Disney World after we land, this is much better for us.
Our original flight was (and continues to be) the least expensive flight of the day, which is why we originally willing to arrive that late. All things considered, this is working out well for us. We were able to pay the price of the later flight, but now we have the convenience of traveling on the earlier flight. A win-win.
Aug 8, 2017, 10:24 am
#20
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Join Date: Nov 2000
Location: San Francisco
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OP here to follow up. Had a much better agent today who re-accommodated me to keep lie flat seating. She had to get approval, was on hold for along time, she came back on and maybe she gave up saying "I've approved it myself." She seemed knowledgeable, so I mentioned the Contract of Carriage says seat type will be protected, she said it's not really guaranteed but that most agents will try to work it out if there is room to do so. She did. Agent and supervisor last night did not.
Aug 8, 2017, 11:41 am
#21
Join Date: Mar 2014
Programs: Mileage Plus Global Services 2MM
Posts: 1,200
OP here to follow up. Had a much better agent today who re-accommodated me to keep lie flat seating. She had to get approval, was on hold for along time, she came back on and maybe she gave up saying "I've approved it myself." She seemed knowledgeable, so I mentioned the Contract of Carriage says seat type will be protected, she said it's not really guaranteed but that most agents will try to work it out if there is room to do so. She did. Agent and supervisor last night did not.
Aug 8, 2017, 4:21 pm
#22
Join Date: Apr 2017
Posts: 575
OP here to follow up. Had a much better agent today who re-accommodated me to keep lie flat seating. She had to get approval, was on hold for along time, she came back on and maybe she gave up saying "I've approved it myself." She seemed knowledgeable, so I mentioned the Contract of Carriage says seat type will be protected, she said it's not really guaranteed but that most agents will try to work it out if there is room to do so. She did. Agent and supervisor last night did not.
Aug 8, 2017, 5:02 pm
#23
Join Date: May 2010
Posts: 1,123
OP here to follow up. Had a much better agent today who re-accommodated me to keep lie flat seating. She had to get approval, was on hold for along time, she came back on and maybe she gave up saying "I've approved it myself." She seemed knowledgeable, so I mentioned the Contract of Carriage says seat type will be protected, she said it's not really guaranteed but that most agents will try to work it out if there is room to do so. She did. Agent and supervisor last night did not.
Aug 8, 2017, 5:17 pm
#24
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Join Date: Nov 2000
Location: San Francisco
Programs: 1K 2.2MM
Posts: 2,352
Sorry my bad. They say "different seat configuration" but don't define it or really say what your options are other than it is considered to be IRROPS.
Aug 8, 2017, 6:48 pm
#25
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Oct 2001
Location: Austin, TX
Posts: 21,350
United can argue this point until they're blue in the face, but they wrote the rule, and they need to stand by it. Nobody forced them to put seat configuration into the IRROPs section of the CoC. I'm glad that this was resolved amicably, and I hope that anyone else who finds themselves in a similar situation will continue to HUCA until they get the appropriate response.
* In fact, even United's specific definition generally needs to pass the sniff test. If they tried to define "seat configuration" as "the size of the bins above the seat" -- obviously a non-sequitur -- it would likely be deemed unenforceable.
