Change Fee
Nov 19, 2017, 12:36 am
#16
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Aug 2009
Location: ZOA, SFO, HKG
Programs: UA 1K 0.9MM, Marriott Gold, HHonors Gold, Hertz PC, SBux Gold, TSA Pre✓
Posts: 13,811
Beside - when you made the purchase, you agreed and acknowledged that it is a nonrefundable ticket.
So a lesson to learn - don't ever change your nonrefundable tickets.
Nov 19, 2017, 8:44 pm
#17
Join Date: Mar 2015
Location: New York, NY
Posts: 687
Apples and oranges. When the flight is cancelled or substantially delayed, you are entitled to cancel the segment without penalty or price increase for the remaining segments. That is what happened in your case. Your remaining segment was not "protected" it simply was not cancelled, you were not charged a change fee for dropping the delayed segment and your ticket was not repriced for dropping that segment either.
That is an entirely different situation from the OP's in which the daughter is making a voluntary change. That will incur the penalty ($200), +/- fare difference (the $100 credit). The UA COC expressly require that all segments be flown in sequence. Its systems will auto-cancel the remaining segment(s) if any segment is not flown.
It's really important to read the relevant fare rules for the specific ticket you choose to purchase. You don't need to worry about pages of discussion about stopovers and open jaws, but you do need to understand what a change or skipping a segment will cost or is likely to do.
That is an entirely different situation from the OP's in which the daughter is making a voluntary change. That will incur the penalty ($200), +/- fare difference (the $100 credit). The UA COC expressly require that all segments be flown in sequence. Its systems will auto-cancel the remaining segment(s) if any segment is not flown.
It's really important to read the relevant fare rules for the specific ticket you choose to purchase. You don't need to worry about pages of discussion about stopovers and open jaws, but you do need to understand what a change or skipping a segment will cost or is likely to do.
Nov 21, 2017, 9:39 am
#18
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: SAN
Programs: UA-1K, AA-Gold, HH-Gold, MR - Gold, HY-Explorist
Posts: 222
Another way to deal with booking with some uncertainty, especially if it is primarily on only one of the legs, is to make sure to check the one-way prices before purchasing. In many domestic markets, the one-way fare is precisely half of the roundtrip fare (although not always). The advantage here would have been the ability to just cancel the outbound without affecting the return in any way since they are different tickets. The downside is if you are making changes to both the outbound and the return, then you are on the hook for 2 change fees. That being said, this type of booking has helped me out more than a few times when plans were fluid without having to commit to fully refundable fares for the whole ticket. I am fairly certain Denver with its huge Southwest presence is probably a market that this would apply to.