Two Bee

My wife and I both had a schedule change (last night) for flights EDI-ORD-LAS in May. Called res, and was told that since we now had a 5 1/2 hour connection in ORD she would change me to any flights I wanted, which she did, after she called to open the 2 seats via EDI-EWR-LAS. Even the dates were switched to my choosing.

Then again we also have flights in May, 2018 LAS-SFO-HKG-BKK for two weeks which I upped the fare to "W" planning to apply GPU's. The original ticket on this itin was for April, but the agent waived the change fee ($300.00 ea) because he said I was buying up, and it was alright to change the dates as long as I was upping the fare. (fast forward) This morning we received a call that grandpa is in the hospital and in pretty bad shape. Called res and asked if I purchased a business fare for my wife, could I apply the W fare and change the dates. Was told that the dates could not be changed without a fee (which they were from April to May --no charge) and if I got a doctors note in Thailand, and sent it to refunds, I would definitely get my $600.00 back. I'm thinkin' 35.925% of the info I received is b.s., but I won't know until I give it a few more calls.

Any suggestions/help?

WineCountryUA

Definitive outside policy but you got lucky with the agent. The no change fee for the Wupfare is not too unusual but the free date change is unusual.

Change fee refund for ralated family medical issue is standard policy. See Consolidated "Refunds/Cancellations Due to Illness/Death" Thread [Merged] 's wiki for the process.

Two Bee

Thanks Wine Country --- We're going to wait a few more days to see how he does. If necessary my wife will go over and we'll keep the other tickets for May.

My only hang-up presently is trying to get a "FMLA" signed by a doctor in the village, in up country, Thailand, and then get it mailed or faxed to "Basic" in Michigan because there is a time limit if my wife wants to get off work with out problems. Doing this in 2 languages is soooo cool!

Like all sudden emergencies there are many hoop to jump through, especially when it's 28/34 hours from XXX -YYY.

kettle1

Welcome to FT RichardJFuller ! BOS-SFO-*** . Where is ***?

anc-ord772

Yup. I had UA change SFO-BOS-LAX -> SFO-BOS because flight number changes tripped the gremlins up. Quite a surprise if you are not monitoring your itinerary.

1P

It's when they put you on another flight with a different schedule, but a replacement flight for your original is still running at the same time with a different flight number and a better aircraft, and plenty of space.... Most of my five booked itineraries for next year have had changes like this...

RichardJFuller

San Diego

sbm12

Just buy the JetBlue Mint nonstop and don't look back.

Often1

Departures from the EU are different. EC 261/2004 requires that in the case of such a change, the passenger has three options:
#1 - Cancel for full refund to original form of payment
#2 - Change to substantially similar route
#3 - Change to later dates

OP is a US departure on a US carrier, so no EC 261/2004. But, none of that really matters because AA can be quite flexible. We still don't know his secret destination, so can't offer good advice.

The B6 Mint option might be good, but presupposes onward B6 flights to "XXX". If B6 does not serve "XXX" OP will need to purchase separate tickets for that segment and those tickets might be expensive and carry all of the risks of separate tickets.

RichardJFuller

Hi all, thanks for the feedback. As I noted, I took my refund and bought new tickets on VirginAmerica. All I am trying to do now is determine if it is fair for me to be irritated at United or not.

Since I'm not willing to do a mid-winter connection in the northeast or midwest, I had no choice but to take the refund and re-book on the other airline. The thing that gets me is that since we are traveling on a peak travel day (northeast school vacation), flights are more expensive now then when we originally booked as flights have filled up. United's decision to reduce capacity on that route and select my family for being bumped, caused me to have to spend more money to get the same quality of product. While it is true that United was happy to re-route me though Chicago, I don't consider that a comparable value product given the basic issues with winter travel and mid-west connections.

The other thing that kinds of bothers me is that the connection through Chicago was lower cost when I booked the tickets, and I had paid a higher price for the transcontinental flights. I also am guessing (but I will never know) that the VirginAmerica flights I just bought were more expensive than they would have been if I booked them initially.

United's basic position is that this is standard operating procedure and that there is nothing they have done wrong here. I also wanted to point out that United did not tell me about the change in aircraft from 777 to 757, all they would do is tell me a "schedule change" occurred and their computer tries to do the best it can do to re-accommodate. I found out about the plane change myself by reviewing my original booking confirmation and the current flight schedule. I think this is what caused my initial irritation, because they initially represented it as a 5-minute flight time change (the schedule change) as the justification for them unilaterally deciding to re-route me. Had they started with the explanation of the change in plane size, I don't think I would have started off being as irritated. Had they actually reached out to me via e-mail/phone/text and explained the situation proactively, I would have been less irritated.

Thanks again for all the feedback, I think my bottom line is I am irritated, but I guess I will just have to get over it. What I have learned is that while I don't like what United did, evidently this is something airlines do, and they probably all do it. I also learned that having top-tier frequent flier status, does not actually give you any higher priority in this type of situation.

WineCountryUA

IME, UA will do all of the above, also -- appears the OP did not like the alternatives and chose the full refund.

halls120

You're smart to have rejected the winter stopover in ORD.

Legally, UA did nothing wrong. But as you note, IF they had been proactive, it would have been far less irritating - and this is my #1 gripe with post-merger UA, their lack of proactive communications. Back before the merger, I was 1K and when they wanted to reschedule an upcoming reservation, I'd get a call in advance. Nowadays, being 1K means nothing, and you have to constantly watch your reservation in order to protect it.

RobOnLI

IMO, no. You took the refund so move on. Why still gripe about this?

-RM

porciuscato

I had pretty much the same itinerary in December: flying on SFO-->BOS PS flight and got switched to 737s connecting in ORD. It it got changed without notice (which is unusual). I only noticed because I tend to review all my reservations every few weeks.

When I called, the agent sounded pretty much willing to make a free change to any routing and times I gave to her. So I can't complain. I'm not sure what more you would expect.

spin88

(1) United flies a "High density" 772 on SFO-BOS, and it sounds like you are in Y. If so, the seats are horrible, .6" narrower than on a 757/737, with narrower Aisles, few restrooms, and very uncomfortable (combined with just being narrow) seats. 6 1/2 hours on that plane - unless your family is all under 140 lbs - and you would have been an unhappy camper
(2) Between you and me, I would have taken a change of plane at ORD over changing at SFO in the winter. You could hit rain, low clouds and flow control ex-SFO and miss your BOS flight. I would rather risk ORD.
(3) enjoy VX, their Y service is far, far better than UA's, so other than more $$$ its a win.
(4) I think it is really crappy that an airline would do this to a 1K. I don't know of any other airline that would unilaterally make these kinds of changes for a high elite w/o a call and an offer of options. That UA keeps doing these kinds of things is why they have lost so much valuable traffic. You have every right to be upset with how this was handled.