sbm12

It can be used for whatever new city pair you choose so no restrictions on o/w v r/t.

emcampbe

Presuming there aren't any flown segments, it's a credit that you'll have use for toward any other itinerary. You'll get the full value of the credit, once you pay the change fee (since you suggest $300, I'm guessing this is an international ticket). So it doesn't matter if it's one-way and our change to a round-trip or vice-versa. If the new ticket is more expensive, you'll obviously be required to pay the balance, if it's less, you'll get a TCV for the difference.

If it's a round-trip and you've already taken the outbound, I believe it's a bit different, and it might be that you'll need to use it back to the same destination. There is a semi-recent thread on this.

Also, just as a tip, I've found the rebooking tool quite inadequate in that it doesn't show the same options as if you were doing a new booking, often leaves partner options out, and sometimes even shows pricing discrepancies. It also has erred out for me when trying to complete the re-issue, even when the earlier stuff was working adequately enough. Hopefully the new website will be better for this,, but in the meantime, I suggest calling when you want to re-book, and on top of that, trying out a new search on the website first to be able to give the agent the options you want.

Often1

To make this simpler, the value of the ticket becomes a credit and you then purchase a new ticket. That new ticket is paid for, in part, with the credit you received from the unflown ticket (or segments of a ticket) and in part with new money (the penalty and any fare difference).

Although not likely relevant here, you may find that there are country restrictions. If this is a US-purchased ticket originating in the US, the new ticket will likely need to originate in the US as well. With that exception, think of the credit you receive as limited purpose cash.

milb

Must the TCV for the difference also be used in 1 year, or does it never expire?

PsiFighter37

In this vein, I have a non-refundable LGA-IAH-SJD RT that I need to cancel. Can I rebook the canceled ticket credit to a domestic flight instead, and if so, would I be charged domestic or int'l change fee?

sbm12

It expires a year after it is issued and can be used to buy travel valid for one year from the transaction date.
Yes and whatever the fee is on the original LGA-SJD fare.

emcampbe

Expires 1 year from date of issue (you must use it within 1 year - date of travel can be after.

A couple of other things of note: some have said UA automatically accepts them for 1 month after the expiry date, though I have never tried this, so can't confirm. Also, unlike the original rebooking, which must be for you, the TCV can be used for travel for anyone (you can give it to them, just don't try selling it). They will need your last name as it will ask for that when redeeming it as part of the payment process.

PsiFighter37

Following up on my inquiry from earlier: for some reason, the 'Change Reservation' button was giving me a few quirks: first, it was directing any NYC starting point as LGA instead of EWR (which usually shows up as an option), and secondly, it was only showing a limited number of flights instead of all of the available ones I could do on a standalone reservation. Basically, was looking to change RT LGA-IAH-SJD (booked on all discount economy fare classes) to RT NYC-STL, but flying back STL-ORD-EWR in F (yes, much less exciting, but a trip that I could now take and that I wanted to) on the way back.

Called into the hotline and got an agent who lined up all my flights but was showing me that I'd have to pay the change fee (only $200 for this despite the original international booking) plus a fare difference of $115, even though I only saw the fare difference of $75 online. Got transferred to web support (which definitely sounded like someone overseas, not stateside), but even though they saw the same fare difference, they gave me the $75 fare (to the exact amount of $74.44, which makes me wonder how they were able to 'grant' it in the end) + change fee.

I'd be much happier going to Cabo instead, trust me, but I'm glad this got sorted out in a timely manner. And, as a kind of sad bonus, this will be one of the few itineraries now where I end up getting more RDM (around 4,850 RDM) than I would have gotten under the old scheme (4,725)...just barely. It took a bit long on the phone, to be honest, but everyone was polite about it, and I was a bit interested to see how things would turn out anyways.

emcampbe

My guess is Mexico is only the $200 change fee as standard. I'm sure there are others with better knowledge, but despite being international, Canada also is only the domestic change fee.

username

I wonder about this too. I asked an agent and she said the ETC is only mailed and they can't provide it electronically. Is this true? Is there a way for me to get the electronic version? One would think Electronic means the issuance is electronic too

I am rarely home in the summer to see my mail.

Thanks.

mozilla

Getting the ETC is a real pain!

I didn't get any ETC in the mail or via email, so I called them to find out where it was.

"For your convenience", they will apparently not automatically send the ETC PIN to you by email or USPS, but rather store it in their reservation system.

If you want to obtain the ETC PIN, you need to call to UA reservations, help them find the original reservation, and then when they see the ETC they'll create a request in their system to send the ETC PIN to you by email, which takes 3-7 days. I did this, and the ETC arrived after 3 days as a PDF attached to an email from unitedairlines AT united.com with subject "Electronic Travel Certificate". With a subject like this, only 1 line of body text and an attachment, it's easily identified as junk mail, so be sure to check your junk folder.

The 1-page PDF contains your name and address, ETC Value, ETC Promotion Code (15TCVA or 14TCVA), PIN code, Issued Date, Expiration Date and Original Ticket Number. It also contains a "RELEASE OF LIABILITY", "REDEMPTION INSTRUCTIONS" and "CERTIFICATE TERMS AND CONDITIONS" (which is the text of GG ETC).

The good news is that the PIN actually works on the UA website. I used it to make a new flight reservation online without any problem. But you need to follow the instructions listed in "redemption instructions" to the letter.

They will not provide the ETC PIN over the phone (well at least not to me).

Depending on how helpful the agent is, if it's urgent, they may offer to book your flight immediately using the ETC on the phone.

physioprof

I have generally received my residual ETC via e-mail any time between immediately and 24-48 hours after rebooking the cancelled ticket. I asked a very helpful priority line TA about this, and she said policy is to receive by e-mail within 48 hours. I've never heard anything about this "cant provide it electronically" business before, and I've received many residual ETCs.

username

Thanks. I will call UA again today. It might be might original ticket was issued by AMEX (Corporate Agent). They charge an additional fee to use cancelled tickets (on top of the UA $200) so those of us who don't want to be ripped off do this ourselves.

DCTrvlr

Newbie here. Quick question about the United ETC: if I have leftover credit after booking a flight using my ETC, will the leftover amount still exist?
That is, if my ETC is for $1000, but the flight I book only costs $600, does the ETC retain the $400 for another booking within the one year period, or is that $400 lost?

Thanks!

WineCountryUA

Welcome to FT!, DCTrvlr

yes, the ETC retains the unused value and can be used for a later flight. The wiki explains the process.