jsloan

I suspect that's correct. The original FFC remains an unused ticket in a reservation, meaning that using it is a change, not a new purchase. It's entirely plausible that the new-style FFC can only be used for new purchases, and not for changes. That would certainly have been the first part of the system built, anyway.

Italian_Kayaker

Booked round-trip business class to Europe for $1,500 during the July 13-14 sale. I would like to change the return by a couple of weeks, but the fares have now shot up to $5,000. However, the "change flight" option on the app & website appears to indicate that I could change the return at roughly no cost. Should I risk it? Or is it pretty much guaranteed that I will end up being unwittingly downgraded to economy?

WineCountryUA

I would not
Changing date will reprice at today's fares.

I would first call and see if the agent could do this (doubtful) or willing to ask supervisor / rate desk for an exception (also doubtful)

Better chance after you have flown the outbound (atleast then the outbound can not be downgraded).

Kmxu

When is your trip? There is uncertainty of COVID-19 related closing and reopening. If the trip is a few months away, I would wait to make any change. If the trip is in the next month or so, you can gamble with the change (economy for daylight flight is not too bad) assuming that no fare difference is charged. If you need to call agent for the change, just play “dumb,” saying that App gives you an “even exchange” option.
Good luck.

emcampbe

probably not. I know I have had issues with domestic flights too.

I’m not sure the issue happens all the time, but certainly enough for it to be reported often here. I’m also not sure it is known what the factors are in general that might lead to it (is it looking for same booking class, etc.)

come to think of it, I just did a change with an SFO to Hawaii flight last week, and not an issue getting the right price with the change vs. new ticket.

Woofbite

I booked an international business class flight for $3407.25 in March and in June needed to make a change. Went online to determine if refundable, partially refundable or would issue future credit. Couldn't make heads or tails of UA rules so figured to go through the process and it would at some point tell me. Unfortunately, the process resulted in an immediate cancellation and a cryptic note that I would be refunded $2507.25 -- which I was. $900 loss for simply trying to determine what would happen if I cancelled.
I've written UA but have little hope of any refund or future credit.

jsloan

The screen you were expecting to see appears on changes, but I don't think it appears on cancellation requests. There's a note that says "this may incur a cancellation fee," but I don't believe that they announce the amount.

Based on what you're saying, it sounds like that itinerary was refundable with a $900 cancellation fee. Unfortunately, while they waived change fees, they didn't waive cancellation fees.

Boogie711

Folks - help me understand. I booked a flight with my GF to Cancun, which cost $1040. We ended up cancelling that trip. Kept the $1040 as a Future flight credit.

We are now looking to book again. The cash price for two tickets to Cancun is $840. I think "Great, I can use the extra $200 later." I go to book flights, and if I use a Future Flight Credit, the cheapest option is going to cost us $1280.... in other words, United will use the full flight credit AND still wants an extra $140.

This can't be right? I create a dummy booking, different dates, just with me to go to Barcelona. Cash price on United - $1100. Future Flight Credit runs me $1320... and I can only use half of the credit, to make the total cash price just over $800.

Am I missing something obvious? I'm not looking to hack the system or anything - I paid the money, I just want to use the money fairly. I even understand if there's a challenge because only my GF can use her portion of the credit... whatever... I paid for it, it should be my credit... but then why are we shelling out an extra $140 when we SHOULD be KEEPING $200?

jsloan

This is a common issue, unfortunately. If you call, you should be able to get the lower price. Alternatively, try starting your booking from scratch and add the Future Flight Credit (FFC) during the payment step. This is a new option, so we don't know yet whether or not it will work when the price is otherwise coming back wrong (please report back if you try it). See my report here: https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/33493563-post665.html

Yes, only your girlfriend will be able to use her part of the credit.

As an aside, though: was either the old or the new ticket Basic Economy? You may not be able to use non-BE credit to purchase a BE flight.

Boogie711

I will call, ask and report back. I don't 'believe' either tickets were BE... I had upgraded them originally so I know the originals were not.

I did try a booking 'from scratch' but got an error message when I tried to apply the FFC. So that's not working properly here.

jsloan

If by upgraded, you mean that you took a discounted UA offer to change an economy ticket into first class after booking: technically, the terms of service for the upgrade state that it's non-transferable and the value is forfeit if you make a voluntary change. I'm not sure if UA is enforcing that or not, but if the difference between the price you expect and the price you're being asked to pay is equal to the upgrade price you paid, that might be why.

That's unfortunate. I had that happen with one of my credits yesterday while testing. I'm not sure why.

JimInOhio

By chance were the original tickets not purchased directly from UA?

gusd

I have a question about rebooking in general.

I have an international UA&LH itinerary P outbound and Z for the return. I'd like to change the return only, and keep the outbound as is. When doing a dummy search, only Z is available for the outbound for the flights I have. When changing the return only, will they refare the outbound to Z as P is not available, or will they be able to keep it in P? I'm trying to avoid having to pay a fare difference.

RobOnLI

If you attempt to change an itinerary before flying the outbound it will reprice the entire ticket at current fares. If you wait until after you fly the outbound then the fare rules that were in effect on the date of your ticket purchase will apply. You will be able to change the return to a new day/time for possibly no money. Otherwise, a fare difference is required but no change fee since you are originating in the US.

-RM

mduell

I recently had a contrary experience:

* Booked an RT in W on the outbound and L on the return.
* A couple weeks later, but before travel commenced, I priced a new ticket departing a day earlier; came out $20 less with L on the outbound and S on the return.
* When I went to change the reservation, it priced as $100 less, because change flights was offering the L outbound and keeping the L return instead of repricing the return to S.

I was pleasantly surprised, but I'm not sure if it was a bug or a policy change.