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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Apr 19, 2020, 6:37 am

#2431

zappa42m

Join Date: Jan 2009

Location: DUS

Programs: United-1K+2MM, Bonvoy-LifetimeGold,IHG-Diamond-Ambassador

Posts: 355

I hold a reservation for a return FRA-ORD-FRA in June booked in last December.
As of today what waiver does aply to this reservation?
This one :

Waiver: All change fees waived for tickets issued on or before March 2, 2020

Original ticket must be issued on or before:

March 2, 2020

Original travel dates

June 1, 2020 - December 31, 2020

Flight changes:

Changes or cancellations must be made on/before April 30, 2020
Rebooked travel must commence within 24 months from the original ticket issue date

Airports

All cities

or this one:

No change fees for new bookings - terms and condtionsTickets: For tickets issued up to March 31, 2020, customers will be permitted to change free of charge to a flight of equal or lesser value for travel up to 24 months from the original ticket issue date. For tickets issued between April 1, 2020, and April 30, 2020, customers will be permitted to change free of charge to a flight of equal or lesser value for travel up to 12 months from the original ticket issue date.

If the new flight is priced higher, the customer may change for no fee but must pay the fare difference. If the new flight is priced lower, the customer may change for free but no residual value will be given. If the customer decides to cancel their flight, they can retain the value of the ticket to be applied to a new ticket without fee for travel up to 12 months from the original ticket issue date.

Cancellations: If the customer decides to cancel the flight they booked before March 31, 2020, they can retain the value of the ticket to be applied to a new ticket without fee for travel up to 24 months from the original ticket issue date. If the customer decides to cancel the flight they booked between April 1, 2020, and April 30, 2020, they can retain the value of the ticket to be applied to a new ticket without fee for travel up to 12 months from the original ticket issue date.

Fare Validity: This applies to all tickets, all fare types, all destinations, all points-of-sale, all travel dates available for sale, provided ticket number starts with 016.

Minimum Stay: No minimum stay.

Blackout Dates: No blackout dates.

Miscellaneous: Fares, fees, rules and offers are subject to change without notice. Seats are capacity-controlled and may not be available on all flights or days. Fares are nonrefundable except during the first 24 hours after purchase. Other restrictions may apply.

sorry in advance if the question is wrongly asked

Apr 19, 2020, 7:37 am

#2432

jiburi

Join Date: Apr 2003

Location: SEA, NW/DL 1.6Million Miler

Programs: DL 1MM Annual Silver,AS 100K 22-24, AS 75K 15-21

Posts: 4,278

Wow, just one flight servicing Seattle today.(Sun Apr 19).... just one flight between SFO and SEA. Both DEN and ORD flight cancelled. No flight to IAH, IAD or EWR on schedule. Sigh....

Jiburi

correction- sea to Denver is showing operating but denver seattle was cancelled.

Apr 19, 2020, 8:30 am

#2433

dorisrpas

Join Date: Dec 2011

Location: DSM

Programs: UA 1K, AA EP, DL PL, HH Dia, Marriott Gld, National Exp

Posts: 721

To/from DSM via DEN, IAH, AND ORD (only UA options pre-COVID) essentially vanished when check day before/day of flights over last few days. Was down to one flight or so/day a week ago, now looks like gone completely.

Apr 19, 2020, 9:50 am

#2434

jsloan

FlyerTalk Evangelist

Join Date: Oct 2001

Location: Austin, TX

Posts: 21,391

Quote:

Originally Posted by IAHtraveler

Can anyone point to a United post/announcement showing they'll waive award redeposit fees? Looking to book a trip 5/25-5/31 with the hopes that things are semi-normal by then, but don't hold UA status anymore to reduce the standard redeposit fees if things aren't looking good.

https://hub.united.com/united-mileag...645643749.html

Quote:

We are currently waiving all award redeposit fees for travel through end of May 2020.

We are now also waiving all redeposit fees for award ticket cancellations made more than 30 days before departure for the remainder of 2020.

Quote:

Originally Posted by zappa42m

I hold a reservation for a return FRA-ORD-FRA in June booked in last December.
As of today what waiver does aply to this reservation?
This one :

Waiver: All change fees waived for tickets issued on or before March 2, 2020

Yes, that one, since you purchased the ticket prior to March 2. You can make a change for free, provided that you do so by April 30. There's a strong possibility that UA will extend that deadline, but they haven't yet.

Apr 19, 2020, 10:14 am

#2435

zappa42m

Join Date: Jan 2009

Location: DUS

Programs: United-1K+2MM, Bonvoy-LifetimeGold,IHG-Diamond-Ambassador

Posts: 355

Quote:

Originally Posted by jsloan

https://hub.united.com/united-mileag...645643749.html

Yes, that one, since you purchased the ticket prior to March 2. You can make a change for free, provided that you do so by April 30. There's a strong possibility that UA will extend that deadline, but they haven't yet.

Thank you for the quick and clear answer.

Apr 19, 2020, 10:21 am

#2436

Bear96

FlyerTalk Evangelist

Join Date: May 2000

Location: TPA for now. Hopefully LIS for retirement

Posts: 13,691

Quote:

Originally Posted by jiburi

Quote:

Originally Posted by dorisrpas

Wow. This made me curious so I just checked TPA for the next two days. All that hasn't been cancelled (from an already tiny schedule) was one early morning flight to IAH today, and an evening flight to DEN tomorrow. That's it. Nothing at all to IAD/ORD/EWR either day.

Apr 19, 2020, 10:44 am

#2437

jsloan

FlyerTalk Evangelist

Join Date: Oct 2001

Location: Austin, TX

Posts: 21,391

Quote:

Originally Posted by dorisrpas

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bear96

The minimum service from the CARES act depends upon the schedule numbers last summer, but it's not high -- 1x, 3x, or 5x weekly, depending upon the service level during the reference period (last summer or winter, depending upon the airline). I'm guessing that mduell could generate a list of which metro areas are required to be served at those levels, but I'd wager that UA has almost no cities at the 1x level; a number of smaller stations would be at the 3x level. But even 5x is an unfathomable drop in traffic compared to where most stations stood. If UA actually schedules at the minimum levels, there are some trips that are going to be completely impractical.

Apr 19, 2020, 10:59 am

#2438

Bear96

FlyerTalk Evangelist

Join Date: May 2000

Location: TPA for now. Hopefully LIS for retirement

Posts: 13,691

Quote:

Originally Posted by jsloan

They have been scheduling more for Tampa. Generally one flight a day to each hub (IAD/IAH/DEN/ORD/EWR), occasionally two. They just end up cancelling most.

What is the CARES Act obligation - just to have flights on a theoretical schedule when there isn't much chance of them actually operating? If an airline schedules eight flights a day out of a particular airport but only one or two end up operating, does the gov't look at the eight or the one or two?

Apr 19, 2020, 11:06 am

#2439

jsloan

FlyerTalk Evangelist

Join Date: Oct 2001

Location: Austin, TX

Posts: 21,391

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bear96

What is the CARES Act obligation - just to have flights on a theoretical schedule when there isn't much chance of them actually operating? If an airline schedules eight flights a day out of a particular airport but only one or two end up operating, does the gov't look at the eight or the one or two?

No, the obligation is to operate the flights. Based upon the target schedule (either winter or summer), airlines have to operate 1x weekly to any domestic destination that they served 1-4x per week, 3x weekly to destinations they served 5-24x per week, and 5x weekly to destinations they served 25x+ per week.

However, that means that they could operate TPA-IAH M, W, F and TPA-ORD Th, Sa and be in compliance.

Apr 19, 2020, 11:42 am

#2440

Bear96

FlyerTalk Evangelist

Join Date: May 2000

Location: TPA for now. Hopefully LIS for retirement

Posts: 13,691

Quote:

Originally Posted by jsloan

Thanks.

Apr 19, 2020, 11:47 am

#2441

IAHtraveler

Moderator: Avis and Rental Cars

Join Date: Oct 2006

Posts: 8,032

Quote:

Originally Posted by jsloan

https://hub.united.com/united-mileag...645643749.html

Awesome, thanks. Not sure how I couldn't find that.

Apr 19, 2020, 1:25 pm

#2442

Weatherboy

Join Date: Mar 2001

Location: New York / Hawaii

Programs: UA Global Services, HH Diamond

Posts: 5,178

Quote:

Originally Posted by WineCountryUA

As stated

Still don't see schedule changes uploaded. Got a lot of tickets to/from places like KOA in the coming weeks that I know won't fly, but tickets still show valid itineraries and you can still buy them. Same is true for reduced service in the northeast; still have tickets and can still book onto flights that we know won't be there in May and June.

Sure would be nice for UA to update their systems to reflect reality.

Apr 19, 2020, 3:20 pm

#2443

goodeats21

FlyerTalk Evangelist

Join Date: Mar 2010

Location: DAY

Programs: UA 1K 1MM; Marriott LT Titanium; Amex MR; Chase UR; Hertz PC; Global Entry

Posts: 10,159

I have a ticket booked on March 11th for a BKK trip in late August. Reservation shows the travel waiver in effect. Can the ticket be changed more than once?

I would like to increase the length of my stay, if travel is possible by then. Thought I would start looking now for flights / upgrade space. But I do not want to restrict any future changes if travel is still not possible.

Apr 19, 2020, 3:32 pm

#2444

rotnkornkid

Join Date: Jun 2006

Location: SFO

Programs: UA GS

Posts: 164

Quote:

Originally Posted by rotnkornkid

I have to fly next Saturday from PDX to CHS (I won’t get into the details but I’ve been quarantined for 6 weeks and need to move to CHS one way or another).

As of now we are supposed to fly UA on April 25 from PDX to ORD to CHS. It seems for the last week one of the two flights (either to Chicago or from Chicago to Charleston) has consistently been cancelled. It seems very hard to predict though.

Meanwhile it seems DL through ATL is super consistent, as is Alaska through SEA. I have ~7 bags with me and am GS and really want to stick to United but am worried I’ll be scrambling the day before I leave. Any thoughts or advice?

Should I just go ahead and switch carriers? Should I fly one carrier to/from ORD and UA for the other flight, assuming only one of the two is cancelled? Are my chances better if I switch fly on Friday instead of Saturday (maybe weekend flights are less full and getting canceled)?

This is a very open-ended question but thought I’d throw it out there for some expert opinions.

UA ended up canceling both flights today (six days ahead of time, which is helpful). Literally the only UA flights out of PDX for next Saturday are to DEN and SFO. Both leave too late in the day to connect to Charleston same-day, so I called GS and got switched to fly PDX-SFO Friday night and then SFO-IAD-CHS Saturday morning (there was a redeye to IAD Friday night but I refuse to do red eyes).

Decided this was easier than pushing for another carrier, mostly because free bags and an almost guaranteed upgrade given how empty the planes are. But definitely not the most ideal routing.

If anyone has tips on how to convince UA to check my bags the whole way and leave them overnight at SFO, do let me know. Because the bags are a pain in the you know what!

Last edited by rotnkornkid; Apr 19, 2020 at 3:52 pm

Apr 19, 2020, 3:33 pm

#2445

jsloan

FlyerTalk Evangelist

Join Date: Oct 2001

Location: Austin, TX

Posts: 21,391

Quote:

Originally Posted by goodeats21

I have a ticket booked on March 11th for a BKK trip in late August. Reservation shows the travel waiver in effect. Can the ticket be changed more than once?

If you change it today, you will be able to change it again at no charge.

After they stop waiving change fees on new bookings, a subsequent change might result in the ticket being reissued under the rules that are current at the time. It depends upon the specific fare rules in your ticket, and whether or not they allow you to keep the fare and/or to use historical fares.

Note that I would not put it past UA agents to make up their own rules, so it wouldn't surprise me if you ran into a HUCA situation trying to make a subsequent change, but the fare rules are in your favor.