May 7, 2022, 3:00 pm

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Active thread; UA-Schedule changes; +25% TATL 2022 capacity, Q2 TPAC down 65% vs 2019; June changes

UA publishes a schedule for 330 days in advance (called Beginning of Schedule) and in the past would make tweaks quarterly and things would be fairly settles 3-4 months out. Updates would occur Friday evening / Saturday morning (Chicago time). Routine additions could occur anytime.
20 Oct 2021

Quote:

Originally Posted by EWR764

In the earnings call today, UA noted that has been transitioning back to its 'normal' (pre-pandemic) 90-day schedule load process, which should be complete in the very near future.

Quote:

Originally Posted by UA Insider

The only thing constant is change and at United Airlines, some of the fees associated with changes related to flying are gone for good. The carrier announced today that it is permanently getting rid of change fees on all standard Economy and Premium cabin tickets for travel within the U.S., effective immediately. And starting on January 1, 2021, any United customer can fly standby for free, regardless of fare type, on a flight departing the day of their travel, a first among U.S. carriers, while MileagePlus® Premier® members can confirm a seat on a different flight on the same day with the same departure and arrival cities as their original ticket if a seat in the same ticket fare class is available.

United is also extending its waiver for new tickets issued through December 31, 2020, to permit unlimited changes with no fee. This policy applies to all ticket types issued after March 3, 2020 and is valid for domestic and international travel.

The new change fee policy applies to all standard Economy and Premium cabin tickets for travel within the U.S. 50 states, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands and customers will not be limited in the number of times they adjust their flights.

Additionally, United is giving customers more flexibility to change their flights on the day of their travel so they can head home if a meeting ends earlier or enjoy a few more hours on vacation. With the ability to list for same-day standby for free, customers will now have an option to take a different flight with the same origin and destination airports as their original itinerary if space is available at departure. This enhanced option will be available to all customers for travel within the U.S. and to and from international destinations beginning on January 1, 2021. Customers who want to switch flights will be able to add themselves to the standby list through United’s award-winning mobile app, on united.com or at the airport no later than 30 minutes prior to departure for domestic flights and one hour before departure on international flights.

The carrier is also improving the travel experience for its MileagePlus members including waiving all redeposit fees on award travel for flights changed or cancelled more than 30 days before departure and allowing all MileagePlus Premier members to confirm a different flight on the day of their travel. As a way to thank MileagePlus Premier members for their loyalty, beginning January 1, 2021, all Premier members will be able to confirm a seat for free on a different flight with the same departure and arrival cities as their original ticket. This expanded option will allow MileagePlus Silver members and above to confirm a new seat in the same ticket fare class if space is available. Earlier this year, United announced that it will extend status for MileagePlus Premier and United Global Services® members through January 2022. United also reduced thresholds for Premier qualification by 50 percent for each status level, to make reaching an even higher status tier easier.

For more information on United’s new flexible travel policies, visit https://www.united.com/ual/en/us/fly/travel/change-fee.html.

Quote:

Change is here. Change fees are gone.We’re permanently getting rid of change fees for most Economy and premium cabin tickets for travel within the United States. This includes Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Learn more

For all other destinations, change fees are waived through December 31, 2020. See terms and conditions

Quote:

We’re extending electronic certificatesTo give you more flexibility when you travel, electronic certificates are now valid for 24 months from the date they were issued. This includes all currently valid electronic certificates and all new ones issued on or after April 1, 2020.

This policy change will automatically appear, but it may not be reflected everywhere right away. We’d appreciate your patience as we work to make that happen.

Quote:

Award flight redeposit fees waived

We’re waiving redeposit fees for award flights issued on or before December 31, 2020, that are canceled at least 30 days before the departure date. You can also change your award flight with no fee. Learn more about changing or canceling your award flight.

International travel advisories and waivers

For more information about international travel:

View our current travel waivers
See our country-specific travel updates
Search by destination for passport, visa and health requirements provided by the International Air Transport Association (IATA)
Visit the U.S. Department of State’s website for detailed information on coronavirus by country[/quote]

CARES service exemptions for United
United Exemption 042520 FINAL ISSUED.pdf
United Airlines 2nd Exemption_051220_FINAL ISSUED.pdf
latest (tentative) -2020-5-5 Order to Show Cause

Other Resources and Statistics

COVID19 UA-Schedule {Archive}

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Mar 13, 2020, 10:35 am

#1576

mduell

FlyerTalk Evangelist

Join Date: May 2007

Location: Houston

Programs: UA Plat, Marriott Gold

Posts: 12,694

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kacee

That's not "trying to hold onto cash," that's trying to exploit a pandemic to extract more cash from their customers. It's really quite odious, particularly given that the State Department has already issued a warning not to travel overseas. UA wants its customers to pay $125 per ticket to heed that advice.

There's no need to pay $125 for redeposit to not travel; cancel the flights and leave the miles attached to the ticket for future use all of which is completely F R E E.

Mar 13, 2020, 10:39 am

#1577

mrtrickdk

Join Date: Sep 2007

Programs: AA Platinum - 1MM+

Posts: 147

Quote:

Originally Posted by mduell

There's no need to pay $125 for redeposit to not travel; cancel the flights and leave the miles attached to the ticket for future use all of which is completely F R E E.

Correct; but the miles would then have to be used in the next 12 months, vs depositing to my account which would have much greater control from my side, and longer "expiration".
At the end, I got miles re-deposited and no fee charged. My flight for tomorrow was already cancelled pre-calling

Mar 13, 2020, 12:17 pm

#1578

CIT85

Join Date: Jun 2007

Location: JAX

Programs: UA Plat MM, AA Gold MM, Marriott LTT, Hyatt Globalist

Posts: 3,770

Quote:

Originally Posted by CIT85

I've been on hold over 55 minute as agent is trying to get rate desk to OK a change in itinerary involving BCN-FRA-IAD-RIC from Mar. 15 to Mar. 12, with LH BCN-FRA not available and BCN-MUC is different fare. With all the uncertainties on the details of the ban and travelers trying to get back to the US before the travel ban, it's almost impossible to accomplish anything

Now back safely after a more than hectic day. Plus Points for original flight on Mar. 15 were refunded and then deducted for the new flight. UA flight MUC-IAD was changed from 777-200 to 777-300 day of travel (I think). Mobile app showed 50 Polaris seats and booked full, but seat map showed 8 unassigned seats before and during flight. Seats in front and behind me were unoccupied. Premium Plus seats were not full either. Captain mentioned to me that a lot of the FAs were new to 777-300 and he had to show them where some things were stored. Since there were no details on the travel ban from Europe, flight crew did not know what was going to happen Friday when at least 1 FA had to work IAD-MUC.

UA CS agent not empowered to make all necessary changes. After 17 minutes on the phone we had already gotten the flights I needed, but there was some difference in fare from BCN-FRA-IAD-RIC to BCN-MUC-IAD-RIC. CS agent needed a supervisor to approve change and we waited about 45 minutes and the answer was simple straight exchange, no fare difference. This tied up the CS agent for extra 45 minutes which could have been more productive in helping other customers.

Mar 13, 2020, 1:01 pm

#1579

hedur

Join Date: Apr 2004

Location: NOC/LAX

Posts: 432

Well, this was a welcome surprise. While contemplating when I was going to brave the call center wait times and basically beg to have my redeposit fee waived for my Monday award flight on LH, I received a call from Dawn with United, who canceled my (already cancelled by LH) flight and redeposited the miles with no fee.

There was no explanation needed and no hesitation on her part to do it. She said waiving the fee was the official policy and if one was to cancel online and charged a fee, they should call in and get the fee reversed.

Well done, United.

Mar 13, 2020, 1:03 pm

#1580

mrtrickdk

Join Date: Sep 2007

Programs: AA Platinum - 1MM+

Posts: 147

Quote:

Originally Posted by hedur

Confusion galore... My experience was 100% the opposite. On all fronts. See my post further up.

Mar 13, 2020, 1:08 pm

#1581

hedur

Join Date: Apr 2004

Location: NOC/LAX

Posts: 432

Quote:

Originally Posted by mrtrickdk

Confusion galore... My experience was 100% the opposite. On all fronts. See my post further up.

Yeah, I saw it, which is one reason I was so surprised at my experience. My best guess is the people tasked with doing the calling on this type of ticket are better versed in the policy. Still no excuse for the confusion but based on my conversation I would think there is hope to get the fee waived, even at a later date.

Mar 13, 2020, 1:22 pm

#1582

HNLbasedFlyer

Join Date: Sep 2006

Location: HNL

Programs: UA GS4MM, MR LT Plat, Hilton Gold

Posts: 6,447

Quote:

Originally Posted by CIT85

UA CS agent not empowered to make all necessary changes.

I'm sure it depends who you got on the phone. That shouldn't be surprising - it is all hands on deck right now with unprecedented times. You are going to have agents with wide and varying experience taking these calls - likely, many of the agents haven't acted in this capacity for quite awhile - so to unleash everyone with wide discretion is probably going to lead to a lot of mistakes and it makes sense, at least to me - for agents to go to supervises for exceptions.

Mar 13, 2020, 1:22 pm

#1583

televisor

Join Date: Sep 2015

Programs: 1 thousand

Posts: 2,112

Quote:

Originally Posted by TravellingMan

I have couple of UA tickets where LH has cancelled their flights, the problem is that I have cancelled the UA CC that I used to buy it with. When I ask for a refund, what happens? Does it go back to the cancelled CC and Chase sends me a check? Or something else.

I have had that happen: refund turning into a check from my CC issuer.

Mar 13, 2020, 2:48 pm

#1584

flyingrohit

Join Date: Sep 2016

Location: SNA (home), LAX, BOM/PNQ, LHR

Programs: UA 1K/*G, Marriott Gold Elite, IHG Platinum, HHonors Silver

Posts: 965

not sure if this is the right thread but let's try. I cancelled ~$1k worth of flights in the next month. I have emails for all the flights but one (more on that in a second) which all say "

Your cancellation was successfully processed.

The value of your ticket can be used for future travel on United. Please note the confirmation number for your reservation. When you're ready to travel again, return to this canceled reservation in Manage Reservations to make changes for a future trip".

So I plan to book a roughly $2k J trip in the summer from UA's site, however, when I go to make a dummy booking, I can't see any option to use the credit from the canceled flights. Does anyone know how to do this or where I can find the options to apply the credits from all these canceled reservations? I tried searching every corner of my MileagePlus account and couldn't find any sort of credit anywhere.

Also all the cancellation emails came instantly upon canceling. For a flight next Thursday, I changed it to this coming Monday. But the price of the ticket for this Monday's flight is $95 cheaper than the flight I booked. So at the final page before finalizing the change, the website said I would get $94.60 in eletronic travel credit for a future UA flight but I haven't gotten the email yet. I was wondering how long it takes to get that as well. Thanks for your answers to all these questions!

Mar 13, 2020, 3:05 pm

#1585

jsloan

FlyerTalk Evangelist

Join Date: Oct 2001

Location: Austin, TX

Posts: 21,419

Quote:

Originally Posted by flyingrohit

So I plan to book a roughly $2k J trip in the summer from UA's site, however, when I go to make a dummy booking, I can't see any option to use the credit from the canceled flights. Does anyone know how to do this or where I can find the options to apply the credits from all these canceled reservations? I tried searching every corner of my MileagePlus account and couldn't find any sort of credit anywhere.

You're not going to like what I'm about to tell you.

You can't combine credit from multiple cancelled reservations to a single ticket.

What you can do is find the specific flight under My trips -> See all trips -> Canceled. Click into it, and you'll see an option to use that credit for a future trip. Sometimes it works. More often, you have to call, because the price is wrong or it wants to charge a fee that you shouldn't have to pay.

Quote:

Originally Posted by flyingrohit

Also all the cancellation emails came instantly upon canceling. For a flight next Thursday, I changed it to this coming Monday. But the price of the ticket for this Monday's flight is $95 cheaper than the flight I booked. So at the final page before finalizing the change, the website said I would get $94.60 in eletronic travel credit for a future UA flight but I haven't gotten the email yet. I was wondering how long it takes to get that as well. Thanks for your answers to all these questions!

As soon as the ticket is reissued, the ETC should be available. The system is awful about getting the emails actually sent, though; they get lost frequently. An agent can find them, though.

That said, the rest of what you're not going to like is that you are limited to two forms of payment on any given PNR. So, you can apply the value of the previous ticket -- that's one -- and a credit card -- that's two. You can't also apply an ETC.

A very kind agent may be willing to bend the rules a lot to help -- by generating an ETC that they're not really supposed to generate, and then combining them together -- but understand that you're asking for a favor.

Good luck!

Mar 13, 2020, 3:16 pm

#1586

flyingrohit

Join Date: Sep 2016

Location: SNA (home), LAX, BOM/PNQ, LHR

Programs: UA 1K/*G, Marriott Gold Elite, IHG Platinum, HHonors Silver

Posts: 965

Quote:

Originally Posted by jsloan

You were right. I really didn't like what you had to tell me

. Funny enough, even after all these years of flying, this is the first time I'm canceling outside of the 24 hour window, or canceling my flight voluntarily. All other times it was UA canceling and rebooking through app. So i'm rather new to this.

Quote:

Originally Posted by jsloan

I will actually try asking for an aggregated ETC. That sounds like a good idea. As long as I don't have to book on the phone. Found an awesome $2.1K TATL J itinerary that had 9-10 flights in it all in J but priced through google flights and re-routed to UA's site right to seat selection page. If I try doing the same itinerary from scratch from UA's site, then it prices at 11K. So as long as its something I can do directly from the UA site, that's all that matters.

So if it doesn't work out, I would assume then the obvious move is to use the most expensive of the tickets towards the $2k ticket. I mean long run I guess it doesn't matter as normal flying will resume in a few months time and all the value of these tickets will be used, but just for the time being.

Addon: Uh oh, so I see that to use the flight credit, you have to start from the booking page. So by getting sent from google flights directly to the payment page, there's no way to use the flight credit for that trip? I'd just have to use the credit from the flights for future flights where i start the booking from UA's website?

Mar 13, 2020, 3:26 pm

#1587

jsloan

FlyerTalk Evangelist

Join Date: Oct 2001

Location: Austin, TX

Posts: 21,419

Quote:

Originally Posted by flyingrohit

Quote:

Originally Posted by flyingrohit

Addon: Uh oh, so I see that to use the flight credit, you have to start from the booking page. So by getting sent from google flights directly to the payment page, there's no way to use the flight credit for that trip? I'd just have to use the credit from the flights for future flights where i start the booking from UA's website?

Correct. Reusing this type of flight credit is really just a change with an extended delay between cancellation and rebook / reissue. There's no way to apply it to a new booking -- and even an aggregate ETC won't help you, because ETCs are only valid for travel on United metal, and this sounds like an itinerary with a lot of non-UA flights.

Mar 13, 2020, 3:26 pm

#1588

glbltvlr

Join Date: Jun 2015

Posts: 710

Quote:

Originally Posted by flyingrohit

Found an awesome $2.1K TATL J itinerary that had 9-10 flights in it all in J but priced through google flights and re-routed to UA's site right to seat selection page.

As long as you understand the situation is very fluid right now and that flight may not actually happen. Just read that the UK may be included with the Schengen countries. It's not just UA obviously - Delta just announced an overall 40% schedule reduction into summer, with international flights likely taking the brunt.

Last edited by glbltvlr; Mar 13, 2020 at 3:32 pm

Mar 13, 2020, 3:31 pm

#1589

Cohall

Join Date: Sep 2005

Location: Denver

Posts: 509

Does anyone know what happens to ancillary purchases if I cancel my flight that was booked prior to March 2nd? Wife and I were planning on flying to hawaii, booked in coach. We had purchase E+ on the way there, and upgraded to business on the way home.

When I click on the cancel reservation option on the website, it shows me getting credit for the main ticket, taxes, and fees, but no mention of getting a refund for the ~$1K in E+ and upgrade purchases.

I've tried calling in, but the waits are insane, as you can imagine (no status). If you have any insights, I'd appreciate it. We were scheduled to leave tomorrow AM.

Mar 13, 2020, 4:20 pm

#1590

flyingrohit

Join Date: Sep 2016

Location: SNA (home), LAX, BOM/PNQ, LHR

Programs: UA 1K/*G, Marriott Gold Elite, IHG Platinum, HHonors Silver

Posts: 965

Quote:

Originally Posted by jsloan

Check the flight numbers carefully. Is it possible that you're seeing native flight numbers coming from Google Flights, but codeshare numbers on the United site? In that case, assuming that there is at least one UA-coded flight, you may be able to get a phone agent to pull up that itinerary at the same price you're seeing from Google Flights.

Correct. Reusing this type of flight credit is really just a change with an extended delay between cancellation and rebook / reissue. There's no way to apply it to a new booking -- and even an aggregate ETC won't help you, because ETCs are only valid for travel on United metal, and this sounds like an itinerary with a lot of non-UA flights.

Yep indeed you are right as always! Didn't even pay attention to that small detail. So google flights shows the native flight numbers as you suggested, and when going to UA's site *through google flights*, the booking retains the native flight numbers:

But starting the booking from UA's site has UA's codeshare numbers which is probably the reason for the price hike? Also yes, mostly non-UA, but the return FRA-EWR-LAX is all UA Polaris/PS.

Quote:

Originally Posted by glbltvlr

I completely understand. The TATL routes that I'm flying on UA metal are ones that UA said they will operate, just have to research now as to what AC will do for their TATL routes. But most importantly, I am eventually going to London to visit family there. YYZ is also for a quick family visit and the random flying through ZRH, AMS, FRA is just for fun and happened to make the whole journey cheaper. If it does get canceled, that's a different story, but these flights are over 4 months out, so I definitely want to take advantage now and gamble as maybe when things steady up a bit, this exact ticket would be in the $5-6k range.