ORD Travel Waiver - 1/14-1/15
 

Airports:

• Chicago-O'Hare, IL (ORD)

​​​​​Original travel date(s):

January 14, 2018 - January 15, 2018

Flight changes:The change fee and any difference in fare will be waived for new United flights departing on or before January 20, 2018, as long as travel is rescheduled in the originally ticketed cabin (any fare class) and between the same cities as originally ticketed.​​



I have a flight into Chicago tomorrow, but looking at the weather I don't see anything inclement, just looks like a clear day... Is this just due to expected issues with flights in/out of other Midwest airports hit by the storm? Or perhaps trying to free up some seats to accommodate passengers impacted from cancellations this weekend?

Trying to decide if my 6 AM EAU-ORD flight is likely to be impacted. (I realize I'll have a pretty good idea when it lands tonight.)

I live within 20 min of ORD and not expecting any bad weather

I'm supposed to fly through ORD on Monday on a XXX-ORD-IAH-MEX itinerary. I'd rather not change my flights or date of travel, but I've also never encountered ORD during weather problems.

Having trip-delay coverage that kicks in after 3 hours makes the decision even tougher, particularly when people above say the forecast isn't that bad.

Accuweather is predicting between 2 - 8 inches of snow in Chicago from Sunday to Monday. Must be why they have the waiver?

https://www.accuweather.com/en/us/ch...t/348308?day=2

It seems like UA is blasting out that email every time more than a trace amount of snow is forecast (today was the third time I've received that e-mail since late December and Chicago snow has been negligible thus far this winter).

OP: NWS forecasts 2-3 inches snow Sunday evening into Monday AM. Take advantage of the waiver if a change of flight times suits you -- availability is wide open on the flights. Both flights EAU-ORD will arrive well in advance of the forecast start time for precipitation tomorrow so if you want to switch from the 5:25am to the 2:15pm you should be fine.

I'm trying to decide if I should re-route around ORD. I'm scheduled to fly SMF-ORD-LGA on Monday morning. It's a great routing and arrives at an ideal time, 530p, which allows for a proper dinner, etc. Do you all think ORD will go into shutdown/havoc mode, or relatively safe to land around 1p and depart an hour later (both A319)?

Is it normal for the web site's "change flights" feature to show the change fees even when a travel waiver is in effect? The last time I got the "exception handling" notice on the first page of "change flights" (last month), the change fees disappeared when I clicked through. But now all possible changes are showing the fees and fare differences, despite the ORD travel waiver.

@Ken Based on current forecasts, no shutdown/havoc mode but maybe slight delays. I'd keep an eye on the weather but at this point it's not worth departing in the middle of the night to transit Denver IMO.

Thanks, I think that's what I'm going to do. There was an option to get there via LAX, and while it would be nice to leave later in the morning, landing EWR at 930p vs. LGA at 530p is a big difference.

Got an e-mail notification for a flight thru ORD tonight. Did my homework and called --- Changed to 1/19 via EWR (Lot's-a seats upfront) with no hassle!

Online travel waver changes are hardly ever friendly to me!!

Forecast light snow 1-3 inches. You can't run a normal operation.

I find it amusing, maybe shocking, that people here are suggesting that UA shouldn't offer waivers. UA shouldn't HAVE to offer waivers, but does so to give customers more flexibility. Why is that a bad thing?

Shouldn't charge fees, but if the change somehow hasn't been propagated to your reservation, the only way to avoid the fee is to ask a human to make the change. I'm not sure I've ever gotten the 'automated' exception handling without one of the flights actually being cancelled or delayed significantly.

Change flights tool is so broken; I always call.

Thanks. I called in and it was an easy, free change. Just wasn't sure if my online experience yesterday or last month was the anomaly.