exp

What's the current policy on refunds?

If you book tickets this year but are unable to go, such as countries barring US citizens from entering for non-essential travel, what are your options? Will UA refund or just let you rebook without fees or will they make you take some kind of credit with expiration of value?

Or if a country allows entry subject to either a negative test and/or quarantine and/or vaccination, then UA wouldn't let you get a refund or free change or credit for those situations?

ISTFlyer

Unfortunately, if your flight doesn't get cancelled, the reasons you mentioned above does not qualify for a full refund such as government imposed travel bans, test/vaccine requirements, etc...

If the flight you purchased would operate, your only option would be able to get a Future Flight Credit that you could use in the future. In addition, you could get a refund if your fare rules permit and be aware that the cancellation penalty stated on your ticket would apply during voluntary cancellations.

However, AFAIK, there are no cancellation fees for MileagePlus awards.

WineCountryUA

If UA operates the flight within 2 hours of the times in your reservation, your option for paid non-refundable tickets is Future Flight Credit with no change fee (but with potential increased fare exposure) regardless of the COVID issues. You have 1 year from the original purchase date to start travel.

There may be an opportunity to request an ETC but YMMV -- probably best not to count only but give it a try if it comes to that.

exp

OK interesting.

I got all my 2020 UA flights refunded as US citizens were barred entry in the EU (3 TATL flights). All flights were booked like the start of 2020 or earlier.

But IIRC, in at least a couple of cases, they did change schedule as they were doing a lot of that last year. Of course they were kind of in a reactive mode, canceling and then changing flights almost month to month.

I guess it would also be risky to assume that UA may have cash reserves to give out refunds.

WineCountryUA

That was never UA policy unless the flights were cancelled or moved in time sufficiently.

And for a period of time UA was allowing easy conversion to ETCs vs FFCs -- that has gone to FFCs are policy and ETCs at UA's discretion.

But NO voluntary refunds of nonrefundable tickets and flights operated per schedule , no refunds, regardless of the entry / test requirement issues. Not happening

UA is hoarding cash to be able to ride out this COVID impact. UA is still running negative ~$20M in cash / daily

exp

Hmm, so how common have schedule changes been in recent months?

They were definitely happening a lot last spring and summer.

WineCountryUA

UA is still publish an optimistic schedule and then adjusts 6-8 weeks out

Still a fair number, you can follow along in
COVID19 UA-Schedule; Weekly updates, February update posted
The March updates are happening this weekend and there should be a summary available Tuesday / Wednesday in that thread

KSVVZ2015

I’m trying to follow this thread but am still confused on one point - if a connection was added to my itinerary but it resulted in no change in departure time and arrival time 2 hours earlier, am I entitled to a refund? I think not but can’t totally follow this.

WineCountryUA

Strictly speaking no, adding a connection is not enough (note this was in the past but not presently).

When you say 2 hours earlier, less than 2 hours or more than 2 hours? If the arrival is more than 2 hours earlier, then it will qualify.
Even if not a full 2 hours, but nearly, it does not hurt to ask.

If there is a change in carriers, there may be an opportunity due to that.

jsloan

The motivation behind the refund policy is to try to accommodate people who will suffer a significant inconvenience due to the schedule change. A two-hour-earlier arrival, without a corresponding change in departure time, is going to make for a bit of a difficult conversation -- there must have been an extremely long layover built into the original itinerary.

You could try stating that you didn't want the second connection and had booked the long layover intentionally to make sure you had enough time to make your connecting flight.

ISTFlyer

I am not 100% sure about the UA policy but, within the last few months one of my UA flights were cancelled and I was offered a 1-stop flight rather than a direct one ( which departed around the same time, about 30-60 minutes earlier and arrived at my final destination 1h30-2h later ) and it automatically qualified for a refund as I went from direct to connecting. Also, US DoT rules state that if a flight is cancelled, the passenger doesn't need to accept a rebooking to another flight and that qualifies for a refund.

By the way, "Manage my Booking" on UA.com showed me the full refund option after this change, in addition to the FTC option. I was also asked to call if I would like to change the ticket to another flight.

jsloan

A schedule change and a cancellation are not the same thing.

That's good information -- OP should take a look and see if there's an online refund option available.

ISTFlyer

If I'm not wrong, other than a cancellation, there is a pretty small possibility that the OP went from direct to connecting.
As the OP was not clear in his original post, it could be a change from 1-stop to 2-stop, which wouldn't qualify for a refund if there isn't a cancellation and he arrives at his final destination within the -+2 hours range; or the same exact flight AAA-BBB has been changed as AAA-XXX-BBB with both legs on the same flight number.

KSVVZ2015

Thanks everyone. Its one-stop to two stop. Same departure time. New flight arrives 2:05 earlier. And yes there was a nine hour layover on the original itinerary.

WineCountryUA

without a more specific time change, it is hard to say if this was policy or an exception

That has not been the interpretation by the airlines (of a schedule change, including changing flight numbers) and the DOT has made no attempt to enforce that interpretation except for on day of travel. The DOT allows schedule changes and does not define when that might be considered a flight cancellation except in the case of a day of travel. Yes, many think a schedule change is a cancellation of the flight numbers change is true and repeat this often but what matters is how the the airlines and DOT act / interpretation.

It is a waste of time to go with that line of argument.

2:05 change qualifies per UA rules for a rule, however odd that sounds