ou81two

You spent $3500 on tickets. If spending a little more is out of your budget then in the future, taking a $250 camping trip to a national park is probably a better idea. United is clear on what is/isn't included and you can cancel tickets at no charge within 24 hours of booking.

erik123

I wouldn't overthink it as the bag fees are likely a very small % of the total trip cost. My advice - travel light. For Hawaii a largish backpack and doing laundry are sufficient. Get a cheap duffel if needed for souvenirs. Which in any case you can likely buy cheaper and have shipped for free to your home on Amazon.

windhund

Some people set aside a certain amount of money for these trips and want to stay within that amount if at all possible - so spending an extra $100-200 on fees may mean that much less in meals or other excursions. I'd rather spend that money on something else in Hawaii as opposed to airlines fees if I could. It may not be a matter of being able to afford it as it is of one's personal choice on how to spend their money.

And has already been mentioned, the BE limitations are not always presented as in-your-face as they are on United's website. Furthermore, when I was new to travel, I had no idea what aspects of a fare were important - there were so many options it was easier to just focus on price and times. I think the options are even more confusing now to people who don't travel frequently.

In any case, I suggest we focus on helping OP and avoid discussing her spending habits or philosophy, which OP didn't ask for help on (and is off-topic for this forum, in any case).

HNLbasedFlyer

I'm going to take a leap that the trip is at a minimum a few weeks out - and probably months out. A family of 5 vacation to Hawaii is generally not an impulse purchase.

If that is the case, I'd plan the trip with a checked bag person - bring what you need - save room for souvenirs, and not stress about the cost or the trip.

In the meantime, if the leap I've made is correct, saving $60 person for the round trip fees is often easier than people realize. Cut the Starbucks - eat out less - bring lunch to work - put off going to the movies - set a daily goal of what you can save - etc.

Weatherboy

United allows fee-free upgrades from Y to F, do they allow the same from Basic to economy? The fare difference between basic and non-basic on most Hawaii flights isn't much, and paying up into the next lowest available fare class may be cheaper than dealing with seat and bag fees.

DenverBrian

They don't.

https://www.united.com/web/en-US/con...c-economy.aspx

mr8

As @Kacee said, not possible to up-fare BE*.

*supposedly, one of the hidden benefits of GS is that you can up-fare BE tickets.
That's why they have the travel compression bags that you just roll to push the air out instead of using a vacuum or pump.
This is probably the best option for baggage! You would not only get TWO free checked baggage (CC holder+1 companion), but I believe everyone in your group will be able to have a full-sized carry-on in addition to the personal item.

The explorer card has decent travel protection and offers some additional benefits when flying UA BE like priority boardings, 2 checked baggage, and carry-on allowance. Could still use the travel credit to purchase advanced seat assignments since there is no way around that even for elites.

emcampbe

Sounds like the OP has already purchased the tickets. My suggestion was merely a way that per reports here, buying a small ancillary (like seat selection on a BE fare) will 'authorize' the reservation for free bags per the card terms - not sure if everyone on the res will get one or just cardholder and 1 companion. Either way, with the card fee waived, it will be $0 for a potential much better benefit, if the OP is able to get approved. If they don't want to pay the AF the next year, they can dump it.

OP sounds like a relatively infrequent traveller, but if the bag fees are too much, then this would be a solution that would work to reduce costs for this trip, and any others they may take within a year, for little cost. Don't know if anything has changed, but I've always seen BE seat selection, when I've checked (though I'll admit not that often) at $12 - on both very short flights and almost transcons. Just one potential option.

These cards cost a lot more than the explorer, and may not be suited for the OP if they don't travel that much. They also presumably require a much better credit history than a card like the Explorer. YMMV, of course. But $150 net for the CSR isn't going to be a good deal for someone that doesn't travel much.

Which is why I suggested potentially applying, and paying for an ancillary with it.

Not to mention, if you buy things like that there, presumably, they'd need to get back somehow. So that will only help with one out of two ways.

Hopefully, some of us our helping. Unfortunately, unless booking on UA.com, its often not well-noted what BE fares don't include. And IMO, the industry needs to evolve to include full disclosure. Government eventually caught up with ancillary's - requiring airlines to have these on the home page of their website. I'm not really for over-regulation, but believe that airlines and agencies should be required to clearly mark the benefits that are/are not included with these fares at purchase, kind of like UA does on their site.

Already discussed upthread, and no. After 24 hours, these fares are completely non-changeable and non-refundable (unless one is a GS, where they can pay a difference to go to regular economy, but I'm pretty sure that's irrelevant to the OP).

WineCountryUA

You took the words off my keyboard

That would be a very incorrect assumption
The dates were in the original posting but on my advice the OP removed them

Let's return to addressing the situation posed and try to be helpful -- other forums are more appropriate for unwanted lifestyle suggestions.

WineCountryUA
UA coModerator

Often1

The simple answer to any discussion of changing a BE ticket is that it cannot be voluntarily changed. It is inflexible. It is either flown as issued or not at all.

For all the discussions of BE and whether it is good or bad, this is the often-overlooked issue.

I do think that this comes down to a choice for OP. $60 per 50-pound bag (round-trip) is actually a significant amount of space for Hawaii in the summer (presuming no ski boots, parkas and the like).

Austin787

2 bags at 50 pounds each is a huge amount of space for a Hawaii trip. Hawaii is warm weather destination so you won't need winter gear. Unless you plan to visit the mountains, and even then a light jacket or sweater should be enough. I recommend using compressor bags.

ExplorerWannabe

It's Hawaii. You can probably get everything for a family of five in one suitcase, at most two suitcases.

Plan on wearing the same travel clothes back as you wore going over. All you need to pack will be a couple pairs of shorts, a couple of tee shirts, a pair of slippers, swimwear, and daily underwear for everyone traveling. The tee shirts can air out overnight and you can rinse the sweat out of them and let them dry overnight if you need. I find a travel-size tube of toothpaste per person is good enough for a week -- for a family, one half-used regular tube should be more than enough -- if you happen to run out, you can stop by Long's or even an ABC Convenience Store.

If space is the issue more than weight, I find I can pack my tee shirts and swimwear and possibly even the shorts in gallon-size Ziploc bags (even better if you can find larger ones). Just sit on them to get the air out while you're zipping them up -- voila, cheap compression bags that you can reuse for other purposes.

There's almost no place you can't go in a pair of (clean) shorts and tee shirt but you can always buy discount aloha shirts if you want to up the ante.

If you pick up more souvenirs than you can fit in the checked luggage, you can pick up cardboard boxes and either mail it back or check it as another item.

x2y

Choose smallish things that will fit into one or two Priority Mail boxes, and ship everything home via the goold ol' United States Postal Service. You can get info on Priority Mail box sizes on usps.com.

drowelf

When we go to Hawaii, we tend to bring the minimal amount of toiletries. On Maui, Oahu and the Big Island, they have K-Marts (maybe not so many anymore) Targets, Walmarts & Longs Drug Stores. While its is Hawaii, we find that the prices for those things are not at a premium, like some food staples (Milk!) can be. Also, for a family of 5 and depending on how long you are staying, you probably can't bring enough Sunscreen to get by. You will be buying more, unless your going to live like hermits in your Hotel. So try and cram all your clothes into 1 or 2 checked bags and pick up most of your disposable stuff when you arrive. Sure, bring a small amount so you can get by for the first day or so until you can find a place for reasonable $$ purchase of that stuff.

Cheers,

Often1

The toiletries likely need to be checked in any event unless the amounts are small enough to meet 3-1-1 rules for the checkpoint. A lot here has to do with sitting down and running some numbers.