cullen24

Had a trip to RAP today on AA and arrived at the airport early to find out the initial flight to Dallas was late and i would miss my connection to RAP. I normally fly Delta but also fly AA when the schedule is better or there is no other choice. I largely avoid United and hadn't flown them for 5 years. For this trip I had an 11AM meeting the next day and would fly back the day after that. There was no other possibility on AA nor Delta to make it to RAP in time.

The United counter was right next to the AA one and I looked at the flight schedules and saw that I could get on a United itinerary and still make it that evening. There was 50 minutes before the departure and this is a smaller airport. The agent asked if I had bags which I did and he said they dont sell tickets unless there is still an hour before departure.

Maybe I am wrong but I always thought 45 min was enough and the security line at this airport is fast. United had a chance to become my #2 and strip me from AA as I tire of the delays and long lines at the counter you find with AA and Charlotte is such an exhausting airport to make connections and it was never built to be a hub. Additionally I will be going to the Phillipines 3 times a year starting in May and United is the most convenient domestic carrier to get you to Manila.

So it 60 min really the cut?

Thanks

jsloan

I'm not entirely sure what the ticketing cutoff is, but I do know that I've never heard of a different ticketing cutoff based upon whether or not you're planning to check bags. If ticketing was still allowed -- and I suspect it was -- you probably could have bought the ticket online and then checked in.

mahasamatman

For international flights, the baggage cutoff is 60 minutes or more depending on origin and destination. For domestic, you should have been fine at 45 minutes. https://www.united.com/en/us/fly/tra...t-process.html

cullen24

The App wouldn't let my purchase the ticket as I was under 60 min

emcampbe

It appears the agent was correct. Just on UA.com testing out....while trying to get a ticket SFO-LAX at 8:00pm PT (It's now exactly 7:00pm), and I'm getting the following warning on top:

It allows me to put in my info, but the 'continue' button to go through the purchase flow is greyed out.

What the restriction is I don't know.

Lux Flyer

Likely a combination of fraud prevention and airport processing times. Airport agents don't generally due new bookings and I don't think their latest iterations of their tools are even configured for it at all. Would require someone in reservations to override the time limit, though I'm not sure if they are supposed to bypass the 60 minute cut off. .

Xyzzy

If one is already ticketed it is certainly possible to change to a flight that is departing within 60 minutes, so in some cases that's one way around the issue. The ther restriction you can run into in circumstances like this is an inability to check in. At some point, control goes to the gate and so if you are outside security you can't get a boarding pass to clear security. In that case the ticket counter can call the gate to have a passenger checked in, but that requires both agents to agree to do so and often the gate is busy boarding the flight close in. The last time I ran into this was before the UA app was as all-inclusive as it is today, so things may have changed.

dblumenhoff

There's a loophole where you book a flight a few hours out and then standby for the flight you want. Wouldn't work with checked bags. For use of this loophole, see the most recent season of Jet Lag: The Game

UAflyerwhoflystomuch

Mainly on DL I believe though

findark

The ticketing cutoff is 60 minutes systemwide since the flight goes to gate control. I would have to guess it's actually possible to buy a ticket "too late" for a flight with a baggage or check-in deadline that is further out.

You can change within 60 minutes though, so the loophole mentioned by dblumenhoff generally works.

stevenshev

You can call and get it done (with some pushback).

You can book a later flight and go standby (above posted who said you can't standby with bags is mistaken) or SDC as applicable.

I actually believe in a no-change fee sort of world you can also just book a random date and then exchange the ticket, but this one I'm less confident about.

But yes, it is ridiculously annoying and never used to be the case. Same with changing seat assignments. Feels like UA is pandering to gate agents who complained rather than to paying customers.

lilpisher

What has changed with seat assignments?!

stevenshev

Until relatively recently, you could mess with them until more-or-less the flight closed. Now you can't change them within some not-so-short window (not sure if it's 60 minutes or 45 or 30).

hur88

Last time this happened I just booked the United flights through Air Canada using miles.

jsloan

The chances of getting a gate agent who just refused to sell you a ticket to print a standby tag for your bags is probably nil. This is one of those things that in theory is possible, but in practice is very much YMMV.