April 10 - United Revises Several Travel Policies and Fees (Standby/Baggage/Pets)
 

http://www.united.com/page/article/1,,52142,00.html

Confirmed same-day travel changes

On the same day of travel as your scheduled itinerary, you can confirm a seat on an alternate United flight within three hours of the time of your request. If eligible seats are available on the alternate flight, your change will be confirmed for a $75 fee.*

You can request a confirmed same-day travel change during online check-in or at an EasyCheck-in® kiosk at the airport. You may also see a customer service representative at the airport check-in counter or call 1-800-UNITED-1 (1-800-864-8331).

* Confirmed same-day travel changes are available only for flights that are wholly within the United States.
* Available only for identical routings (same origin, destination and connection city, if applicable).
* Alternate flights must be scheduled to depart within three hours of your request. For flights departing more than three hours after your request, the standard change fee policy will apply.
* The confirmed same-day travel change fee is non-refundable and will be collected at the time when the change request is made.


Unconfirmed same-day standby

You can also choose to stand by for a seat on an alternate United flight on the same day of travel as your scheduled itinerary.

For travel on or after April 28, 2010, with tickets purchased on or after April 10, 2010, a $50 fee may apply in each direction of travel.

If you request same-day standby, your name will be added to the standby list for the selected flight, and you will receive a departure management card for that flight when you complete check-in. Your name will be called at the departure gate if a seat is available on the selected flight, and your departure management card will then be replaced with a boarding pass. You will not be charged the $50 fee until/unless you board a standby flight.

You can request same-day standby during online check-in or at an EasyCheck-in® kiosk at the airport. You may also see a customer service representative at the airport check-in counter.

* Same-day standby is available only for flights within or between the United States, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Canada.
* Available only for identical routings (same origin, destination and connection city, if applicable).
* Standby flights must be scheduled to depart on the same day as your original ticketed flight.
* The same-day standby fee is non-refundable. Payment information must be provided when requesting standby, but the fee will only be charged upon boarding of a standby flight.

*Global ServicesSM customers, Mileage Plus® members with 1K® status, and customers traveling on Standard Award tickets or fully refundable tickets are exempt from fees for confirmed same-day travel changes and unconfirmed same-day standby.

http://www.united.com/page/article/0,6867,53409,00.html

Policy updates

To continue offering our customers flexibility and choice in their travel experiences, and to make planning easier, we are implementing changes to several fees. These changes will be effective for tickets purchased on or after April 10, 2010. For the fees that are decreasing, all passengers will be presented with the new, lower fee amounts for travel on or after April 10, 2010, regardless of ticketing date.

Special items, oversized, overweight and excess baggage
We are implementing a clearer and simpler fee structure for special items and oversized, overweight and excess baggage. In many cases, the new fee is a decrease from the previous fee. First and second bag fees are not impacted by this change. View updated fees

View the updated policy for:

* Special items
* Oversized, overweight and excess baggage

Pets
For pet fees, most international flights will now match current pricing for flights within the U.S., which is $125 each way for pets in the cabin as carry-on and $250 each way for pets in kennels as checked baggage. View updated fees and policy

Same-day standby
A new $50 charge is being introduced for customers who choose to voluntarily stand by for another flight on the same day as their scheduled flight within or between the United States, Canada, Puerto Rico or the U.S. Virgin Islands. As before, voluntary standby is not offered for other international travel. View updated policy

GS and 1K are exempt from these fees. I kind of think 1P and 2P should also be exempt, but what do I know... More reason to be sure I hit 1K again.

Dang :( But I guess it was coming... United was the last standout, and I didn't expect they would resist for long.

Now I get it.....an alignment to the US model.......oh great.....here we go.;)

I have to agree, as a 1P (I forgot to update my profile), I have gone standby many times and been cleared onto an earlier flight – I will miss this benefit. In fact I've been guilty of buying the cheap last flight of the day with the intent to go standby and depart earlier. I really valued that benefit and almost always cleared onto the desired flight. I had divided some of my business to other carriers, I might have to consolidate back to UA for 1K.

One line of the statement did confuse me:

"For travel on or after April 28, 2010, with tickets purchased on or after April 10, 2010, a $50 fee may apply in each direction of travel."

See where it says "may," I assume this is to address people who may have misconnected or are impacted by weather, there won't be a fee for them. However, they could clarify this a bit more....

Seems like a huge price to bring a pet into the cabin!




:td::td::td:

I don't like that..

Just another fee to nickel and dime United customers into finding another airline ... this was a fantastic benefit and I feel was a good discriminator for flying United ...

And the fact that the fee will apply for both 1p and 2p is just additional salt on the wound. My experience as a first time 1k this year has been lackluster with the lack of confirmable NC seats for the rest of the year ... and knowing when I drop back to 1P next year, i'll lose another benefit i utilized often.

All these fees just make me feel like United is turning into a discount carrier ... and if i wanted that there are better value options for flying domestically ...

Unfortunate indeed. However, standby changes don't seem to be applicable to 1Ks. I guess another status benefit (and one step closer to CO/US).

Didn't catch that.. Very good to see!

:td: for not including 1Ps and 2Ps...
oh well... hopefully, the "may" part of the details will play out ok for my travels :D

The fee is contingent on you clearing, not just getting on the standby list (that's the maybe, I think). I don't imagine this would impact IRROPs personally. But yes, wording is mediocre (I would guess that it's 50per standby, not per direction of travel, but maybe I'm just being pessimistic).

Being a 1P, I kind of agree with you. First, "unlimited domestic upgrades" that (in my experience) rarely trickle down to 1P, now the standby fee. I'm concerned we'll be paying fees to reserve E+ soon (with a 25% discount 'for your continuing loyalty').

:td:

Boo! One of the niftiest features UA offered.

Comparing this with others:

CO - 50 to change within 24 hours (e.g. 1pm flight, you can change at 1pm day before)
US - 50 to change any point same day (e.g. 1pm flight, you can change at 6am, but only at the airport)
AA - 50 to change within 12 hours (e.g. 1pm flight, you can change at 1am)
DL - 50 to change within 3 hours (e.g. 1pm flight, you can change at 10am)
UA - 75 to change within 3 hours, 50 to change 15 minutes prior...

(AA/DL/US free for all elites. CO offers a 25 discount for golds. Only UA charges full price for low/mid elites.)

UA just went from the best standby, to having the worst of all legacies. I wonder if I can get this on a napkin, along with the #1 on-time message.

Any guess if companion traveling in same PNR with 1K member will also be exempted?