adobe

Per United website, "When flying with one of our Star Alliance partners, changes must be made at least 24 hours before departure."

I am a little confused by the wording "before departure" here, does it mean that any change has to be made 24 hours before the originally scheduled departure time? Or does it mean that the new departure time has to be at least 24 hours away if flying the partner airlines?

For example, if the original departure time is 5pm with Air Canada, at 4pm (1 hour before the originally scheduled departure time), can I make the change to a same itinerary 21 days away for free, as long as the same class seat is available?

star_world

24 hours before the new departure time. This is to ensure that the ticketing process completes successfully. In many cases, and with many partner airlines you'll find agents willing to make changes inside 24hrs.

aacharya

Just a note - your example is a bad one - you may have issues if you try to cancel/change a flight that soon, especially on an international partner. The flight might be under airport control, for example.

claurianta2

Hello,

On the UA website (http://www.united.com/web/en-US/cont...ticketing.aspx) it states:

"When flying with one of our Star Alliance partners, changes must be made at least 24 hours before departure."

Does this mean 24h prior to the departure of the original flight or prior to departure the new flight? So for example could I call in 12 hours prior to the original flight to change to something a day or two later (availability permitting)? Or must I call in 24 hours prior to the flight I have booked?

The reason I'm asking is that I have to use a positioning flight and due to the weather where I live, reliability isn't great. I would leaving plenty of time between flights (like 12+ hours) to deal with delays, but if there is a cancellation I would likely be delayed by 24+ hours and would have to do something with the Star Alliance award (either change or redeposit), and would be calling in about 12-18 hours before departure.

nachosdelux

I have made changes to flights once travel has begun, within 18 hours of the 2nd flight.

E.g. original flight was DAY-ORD-FRA-PVG (UA/LH/LH) with an overnight (23 hour layover in ORD)

Once I got to the hotel in ORD, I was able to call UA and change the remainder of the reservation to ORD-ZRH-PVG (LX/LX)

YMMV

UA-NYC

On Friday I booked a TG award flight at ~15 hours out and cancelled it ~10 hours out...no issues.

Kacee

I think the 24 hour "restriction" is to give the partner time to ticket. Sometimes that will be an issue, most of the time probably not. I have definitely booked and changed partner awards less than 24 hours out.

100countrygoal

My question is not about cancelling a partner award within 24 hours of booking.

I previously booked a partner award that departs tomorrow evening. United now requires one to make partner award changes at least 24 hours before the flight. I may need to cancel (not change) the partner award ticket. Can I do this up until departure time, or does one need to cancel a partner award 24 hours in advance? United's web site seems to indicate that 24 hours in only required for a change, but I want to make sure that a cancellation is not subject to that 24 hour requirement. Many thanks.

MatthewLAX

Who said you have to make partner changes at least 24 hours before the flight?

100countrygoal

United.com says that.

http://www.united.com/web/en-US/cont...ticketing.aspx

"When flying with one of our Star Alliance partners, changes must be made at least 24 hours before departure.† "


Anyways, back to my question pretty please.

MatthewLAX

Anyways, I book awards all day and this rule is never enforced.

So don't worry about it, pretty please.

21A

Yeah, I'm pretty sure this is not a real rule. Or at the very least, it only applies with some partners. I just changed a TG segment for later today without issue. (I have a vague recollection that PMUA had it and PMCO didn't -- I think we got PMCO systems/processes on this, but maybe PMUA text on that page?)

I know that doesn't directly address your cancellation question, but as a corollary I'd be really surprised if you can't just hit the Redeposit button on the reservation (paying any applicable fee) up to flight time.

villox

I don't know the exact answer, but if I had to guess, I would say this is no problem at all. I believe the 24 hour rule comes from the fact that Star Alliance Partners have 24 hours to reject an award booking, which would include changes. This doesn't mean they will, and it doesn't mean UA won't let you book one, but it means it could happen.

A cancellation on the other hand would process with no issue for both sides.

WineCountryUA

Actually this does not say the cancellations require 24 hours. What this is referencing is partners can take up to 24 hours to confirm a booking or a changes to a different booking. Does not apply to cancellations and in reality does not apply to most changes either.

MatthewLAX

Bingo.