Change fees for international flights originating outside the US
 

Hey FTers,

I'm trying to book TLV-EWR-TLV in late April and prices in business are crazy because of Passover. I was considering just booking what I could get and then switching flights as options change, but I see that as of Feb 1, United is now charging change fees for international flights that originate outside the US. Can anyone confirm if they are actually doing this? Even for business tickets? What about if I book in economy and want to change to business - do they waive the change fee when going up in fare class?

Separately but related, if I book regular business for TLV-EWR and "Economy (fully refundable)" for EWR-TLV, does that means I can change EWR-TLV without cost?

Sorry for the many questions. I miss the more generous policy.

Yes, certain fares actually have change fees. Usually buy ups can get change fees waived. And if you booked mixed rules, the more restrictive apply to the entire itinerary, so no point in most cases.

n.b. that if you make changes after ticketing to either segment it will reprice the entire itinerary based on fares available at that time. So advisable not to try to get cute.

It should be noted that this can possibly be mitigated with .com buy-up offers, but no guarantees that they exist or are attractive, let alone reflective of the theoretical one-segment buy-up price.

No
1, the trip originates outside the change fee zone
2, Beside as mentioned the ticket would be repriced, a "refundable" segment becomes non-refundable if paired with a non-refunable segment. The most restrictive fare rule applies to all segments

Thanks.

I now understand that the "fully refundable" is effectively worthless unless both segments are "fully refundable" (pretty disingenuous presentation in the booking path if you ask me).

With respect to whether or not there will be a change fee if I make changes, United's web content is fairly consistent in saying that free changes are only for international flights originating in the US. However, when I read the fare rules (which admittedly are almost impossible for me to understand), under voluntary changes for TLV-EWR it says:



If I understand correctly, there is no fee for changes. Am I reading it right?

I’m glad I came across this thread as I was about to book a return trip to SFO from DUB and I was offered AC or UA as places to book. Clearly I will do so on AC. BA doesn’t have change fees either so I am not sure what this reimposition of change fees will do to UA’s competitive position. The website is completely silent on what the fees will be.

yes, but it’s been like that forever. For change fees, etc. also. Domestically, you can book two one-ways to work around this, which often are the same as a roundtrip, though I’ll admit the fares I’ve been looking up ex-SFO recently (mostly to SEA/PDX) we’re not, so always YMMV.

Ill admit to not reading the whole thing In detail, since it’s really hard on the eyes (IME) to read fare rules when it’s soo much text in all caps, which is of course standard, but I see this in several places:that essentially means no change fees, unless another fare component on the itinerary has them, then it’s like the refund ability thing, where typically the highest change fee applies to the whole ticket. This is because when you make a change, the whole thing, segments you are changing, as well as those you are not, need to be re-fared and re-issued.

UA is charging what it thinks they can get away with. If they thought waiving ex-international change fees (whether the competition does it or not) is more beneficial than charging them, they’d drop it. I am at a disadvantage for this too - for years I’ve been booking two one-ways to Canada instead of an RT since it’s generally $30-40 cheaper to do so. Pre-pandemic I rarely made changes, so I wasn’t worried about the fee, but with all the uncertainty of potential entry changes, etc. it’s too hard to predict whether changes will happen now. So I’m coughing up the extra for my next trip so if I need to change, it’s easier.

Beware that both AC’s and BA’s policies are changing soon.

After Feb 28, only the first change on any given AC ticket is free. Subsequent changes will carry a change fee (where one would be applicable).

For BA, change fees are currently only waived on new tickets if all travel is complete by August 31st. If any portion of the ticket is beyond August 31st then standard change fees are back. (Oddly, this is incongruous with AA’s current policy, which still waives all change fees, so you can get a lot of those flights as AA codeshares with the more generous policy.)

AC has been extending that deadline by a month every month since Covid started. Although there is no guarantee, it's very likely that they will extend it again.

change fees
 

This change fees are now back....but then what are our options if we are on a non refundable ticket and get a positive result on covid 1 day before the travel? Basically we have to cancel the ticket and pay a change fee of 250 USD to use the value in the future? Does United think the pandemic is already over in February?

Thank you for the link.
Actually, since February 1st change fees do aplly also in these countries, including travel between US and Mexico :(

No, that is not correct
Change fees now only apply to Basic Economy tickets or if originating outside of those listed areas.

The change waiver that expired 31 Jan 2022, applied just to the flights originating outside of those listed areas

As the fare rules I shared indicate, at least on my TLV-EWR-TLV itinerary, they are not imposing change fees despite what the policy says. No idea why, but I'll take it.

Some routes have traditional been change fee free or very low fee for local reason, don't know if this previous included TLV. General this was for the non-USA origination, not ex-USA . Many Asian departures had this benefit.