Best way to handle UA price drop
 

Recently purchased two OW TUS-HNL UA First Class for June. United changed equip to wide body: bigger plane = more first class seats = dropped prices. The difference is about $300 per ticket. Do I:
1) Call to beg to get a refund credit and are there any processing fees (used to be $50, sometimes waived)
2) Is this a strategy?: Change itinerary to a different date and then a few minutes later, change again, back to the date I want, at the lower rate? (Will United's computers know what I have done?)
Thanks I'm a UA newbie.

Welcome to FT, POI

You can not flight change to the same flight online. You could change to another and the change back or you can call where the agent can process the request.

For a non-refundable flight you will get a FFC (Future Flight Credit) for the decrease (1 year to use). You will not be eligible for a refund to the original form of process.

As change fees have been dropped, there will be no fee for doing this.

If the 'recent' purchase is within 30 days then the not so well-known UA rule should apply where you can get a refund of the fare difference less $50. Not heard that this was discontinued. I have even gotten a full refund before ... but YMMV. I have also been offered an ETC for the full difference. Definitely call and ask what options they can offer w/ the price drop; getting $250 back per ticket should be one of the options.

I can confirm that this practice continues. I asked a 1K agent about this about two weeks ago.

Does this policy still exist despite fare rules indicating forfeiting residuals on a cheaper itinerary or does the forfeit provision not apply if ticketed itinerary drops in cost? Thanks.

UA seemingly never went back and updated their fare rules, leading to angst for those of us who actually read them. :(

I can confirm that as recently as last week, I was able to get FFC for a flight change despite the 'residual is forfeit' language. In my case, I cancelled the trip, which generated an FFC, and then I started from scratch and added that same FFC during the booking process. If canceling and rebooking isn't an option, changing to an alternate flight, and then changing back, should also work.

Likewise, I have had them recently wave the $50 fee and received full refund. This is not that uncommon a scenario. I had the price drop massive on a TATL and got a big refund and rebooked, I think that time they DID hit me with the $50 fee.

They're enforcing the "residual is forfeit" rule for most travel agency-issued tickets and seem to be just waiving the rule for directly-booked tickets. It's pretty obnoxious.

Sounds like a good incentive to book directly.

Maybe they can't claw back the commissions or something to that effect

FWIW my tickets were all direct booked and yes fees also usually waved.

I just sent my feedback.

What was that?

Asking UA to make it easier to decrease its revenues probably will not get a positive reaction

agreed. They are clearly not incentivized to make it simple. The slightly more time consuming change and change back, or cancel and use the FFC to rebook are the best options. A small PITA to do the extra steps but easy enough to do online without any help needed. Sometimes better to do the easy thing with no agent interaction then to work to convince an agent about something that should be pretty common sense, but they won’t do by default.

What is best practice for rebooking a United paid fare when the price drops significantly, please?

We have tickets that cost $430 each that are now $330 each. I would "change" the flight to the new ticket, but it only lets us upgrade from economy to refundable economy, wiping out most of the savings.

TIA for your help, and sincere apologies if I missed a post on this!