cagcag

Hello, I am expecting that a schedule change on a rev ticket will result in a misconnect with a scheduled award ticket. Can I safely fly on the scheduled flight knowing of the misconnect situation, and then apply "trip in vain" and request to be transported back to originating airport thereby cancelling the connecting award ticket?

WineCountryUA

Is this a schedule change or irrops --

If an advance schedule change, then if UA delivers per the new schedule there is no TIV

You assume all the risks when booking separate tickets.

You do have the option, in a schedule change, to say the new schedule does not work and you want a different flight or a refund.

COSPILOT

FoxFlyer

As COSPILOT notes, these are two separate tickets, so your AWARD flight - if you land after it departs at the "connecting" airport - would be characterized as a no show, likely resulting in the cancellation of your whole itinerary. It's not a TRIP IN VAIN, because the award ticket has nothing to do with the revenue ticket, and in this case, United's responsibility on the award flight starts at THAT AIRPORT with THAT AWARD TICKET. What you do prior is irrelevant to them.

cagcag

My question was not really about the award ticket, I can cancel that without penalty in advance of flight..
What I would like to do is to reschedule the return thereby not using the award ticket.
I am scheduled to fly into SIN and from there to PEK on an award ticket and from there back to original destinątion. I would now just like to return out of SIN later same day as arrival. All of this due to schedule change into SIN from SFO. WOULD the schedule change in arrival into SIN, be justification enough to change return routing on this rev ticket, 1K here.

FoxFlyer

Then I would be careful calling it a "trip in vain"... because this is not what it is nor would it would cover.

If what I am reading is correct, your REVENUE flight returns out of PEK (presumably a few days later?) to your original destination, and what you'd like to do is use the presumptive (though not yet official) schedule change as a way to change your return to your original destination from SIN the same day as you arrive (instead of PEK days later).

If you continue to use the term "trip in vain", especially when you call United to discuss this, I assume UA might question why you would take the trip at all and you're not going to get anywhere. Without knowing all the fare rules, I think it's safe to assume you can always ask, but in this case it seems highly unlikely. The best you might get is the offer to simply cancel the whole ticket without penalty and get a refund. Personally, I am not sure how a schedule change into your destination city would affect your return out of another city, and United's published rules for schedule changes take this into account:

"If your scheduled departure or arrival time changes by 30 minutes or more, we're happy to try to find other available flight options that meet your needs. Please keep the following in mind when you call:

• Your origin and destination will have to be the same as on your original itinerary."

Also, "When a schedule change happens, we try our best to provide you with options that minimize the disruption to your travel plans. In cases where the new flight options don't work for you and one of the following scenarios applies, we may be able to offer you a refund:

• The scheduled departure or arrival time changes by two hours or more.
• The change causes issues with the overall length of the trip, such as making the connection time too short or significantly longer than it originally was."

Given your circumstance, bullet pt #2 above does NOT APPLY (since your "onward" ticket is separate award ticket/trip), so unless the SFO-SIN change is more than two hours (bullet pt #1 ), I'm afraid you're out of luck.

Kacee

You mean change PEK-SFO to SIN-SFO? I think it very unlikely UA does that without a change fee and refare of your ticket. If the schedule change is 2 hours or more, you can ask to cancel and refund the ticket.

cagcag

Thanks to all experts who responded. i notify UA to refare Itinerary.
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joe_miami

Is there an anticipated SFO-SIN schedule change coming soon or is this a one-off due to IRROPS, etc.? Thanks.