ShinyO

Hi,

I have upcoming travel for business SFO-ORD. I've booked using my company credit card. My company will only book us in economy, but when there is a relatively small price difference between the economy and business fares, the flight is relatively long, and the seats are nice (787-8 in this case) I will sometimes pay to rebook myself in Business. Even pre-covid I tried to do this within 24 hours of booking to avoid any fees or problems. But I would always call and do it with an agent on the phone. Importantly, I wanted to make sure that the fare difference was charged to my credit card, and not the company card used for the original booking.

I have not had to do this since the pandemic began since I curtailed my travel. However, I just booked a trip for a couple weeks from now. I tried to call and it's telling me the wait time is 50-60 minutes, which is a bit long for this.

If I were to cancel this booking online and rebook it online in business, can anyone explain how the flight credit would work? Will it go back on my company's card? If I rebook in business can I charge the fare difference to my personal card or will the system automatically charge it to the original card?

I've never had a problem doing this with an agent on the phone. But I'm unsure of how the online system will treat my request.

Doppy

If you cancel you should have the option to take future flight credit.

Do you see the upgrade option available when you look at the reservation online?

If not, then you can also try to use the "change flight" feature on the website and see if that will give you the option to switch to first. For whatever reason, sometimes the change flight feature will not let you rebook on the same flight, so this may not work.

WineCountryUA

Don't do this online, call -- for multiple reasons

First you will not likely to be able to "upfare" online your present bookings -- it has long been a limitation of the system

Second cancelling and rebooking may create an audit issue for your company. If done in the first 24 hours, the refund may go back to the company card. If later it will be a FFC and could look like you are trying to convert company funds to yourself. You can explain that but why get into that issue. Auditors can lack some common sense.

ShinyO

Thanks for the advice. I’ll stick it out on the call despite the long wait times.

The online system would not let me upgrade the flight despite seat availability.

IAH-OIL-TRASH

You probably don't want to cancel a ticket back to a CC and buy another one or move it to a FFC - both are viewed upon dimly by a lot of companies. Call.

ShinyO

Yes this is a particularly sensitive trip too. Thanks!

Often1

Just to be clear, did you book the trip on united.com or through a corporate TA?

ShinyO

Corporate TA. But this has been the case in the past and it hasn't been an issue to call the airline directly and change it with them within 24 hrs, I've found. Not sure since Covid arrived.

WineCountryUA

Then they will be notified if you modify the ticket -- and the cancel to FFC could raise eyebrows as a regular practice.
As they have not objected to the past upfaring and you can not do upfaring on the same flights, best to continuing call. Best not to change from a successful approach.

ShinyO

Thanks. Yes in the past the modified reservation did update as business class but the company had never complained. Oddly enough United would not do it for me this time and told me to call the travel agent. That’s a first for me. So maybe things have changed.

The travel agent also said no I couldn’t rebook. I did this routinely in the past but pre-pandemic of course.

WineCountryUA

Yes there have been reports that United is increasing reluctant to takeover / make changes of tickets issued by TA / especially corporate TAs before day of travel. However there seems to be some variability among agents on this so HUCA.
Unable to change corporate / third party issued reservations via UA.com
UA taking "ownership" / "control" of a reservation made by a TA for a ($50) fee?
Airline won't help because "ticket was issued through a travel agent"

ShinyO

Ah, too bad. This is Egencia as well, which is the TA mentioned in one of the threads.

My understanding was changes made to bookings within 24 hrs of booking were quite easy as that is the period where you could have flights cancelled for free and rebooked. So previously I would book via the corporate TA and the quickly call the airline and rebook. But that doesn’t seem to be the case now. This flight is also showing on the UA website as ineligible for upgrade and even ineligible for prepaid checked baggage.

I chose this particular flight in part for the first class seats on the 787-8. That’s disappointing.

MSPeconomist

This sounds like the corporate travel agent may have used a bulk (unpublished) fare or perhaps a basic economy or similar fare that normally allows no changes and no upgrades. Can you see fare codes and detailed fare calculations on your receipt?

ShinyO

Fare class is: United Economy (S)

Fare is listed in CAD as the full itinerary is SFO-ORD-YYZ. Base fare pre-tax is CAD$397 (approx USD$315)

MSPeconomist

Can you see the complete fare code? It should be about six letters and numbers, probably starting with the letter S, and it might end with a slash and about four more letters.