Rights/abilities when correcting schedule change
 

I booked an itinerary using an e-cert (long in advance) and I'm now on schedule change #4. The difference in arrival times is now 3h21 from what I booked originally, although an earlier routing is now available that could cut that change to 2h07.

I'd now like to move the trip a week later. I thought that a change >=3 hours gave you considerable latitude in rescheduling. The CoC now seems to suggest that this limit is 2 hours in section 11.D, although the extent of permitted changes is not spelled out.

I just tried calling in twice and got two answers from a US call center:
- would change the date if the same booking class were available on the same routing (it's not)
- would only change to earlier or later flights on the same day (not useful to me)

My small sample thus far suggests a lack of clarity from UA on this issue. I'm not really interested in opinions on whether I'm asking for an unreasonable change, but would like to hear from people who have made significant changes (e.g., day of travel) stemming from schedule changes like this.

Try for the ICC. They're usually quite nice about schedule changes. I've been able to change cities (EWR to LGA) for a 30 min schedule change before with the ICC. Sometimes it pays to not get routed to a US agent.

"Considerable lattitude" does not equate to "unlimited changes". One thing you can definitely do if your change exceeds two hours is cancel with no fees and rebook the future flight, but there are limits to the changes you can get.

But if the op fully cancels, the value of the ecert will evaporate.

[QUOTE=mahasamatman;15762194]"Considerable lattitude" does not equate to "unlimited changes". One thing you can definitely do if your change exceeds two hours is cancel with no fees and rebook the future flight, but there are limits to the changes you can get.

I think you're trying to tell me that I'm asking too much, but it's this "limit" that I'm trying to identify since UA is not explicit about it.

The limit is only defined by what you're able to convince UA to do.

Truth

Which can be stretched in most only cases by a "supervisor". The OP might want to call back and ask to speak with one of them, especially since two calls have yielded two different answers, meaning confusion and uncertainty...

ICC for the win. One quick call without entering my MP number took care of this no problem.

That's funny...I would have never imagined the ICC being that helpful. Then again, I had a long discussion with a 1P agent about a schedule change the other day. She couldn't quite comprehend that because my first flight had moved later and the connection had moved earlier, that I was no longer satisfied with the connection time. All I wanted to do was get one earlier departure out of SFO...my original flight had actually even been canceled.

WRT ICC:

I have found that when you present them a solution they can usually make it happen. If, however, you are asking for help, they usually cannot think beyond their script.

The ICC can be very useful on this. I've had them cancel, at no fee, an award booking to SE Asia because a domestic connection had a schedule change of about five minutes. YMMV.

Pardon my ignorance, but what is "ICC"? I'm guessing I___ Customer Care, but not sure.

International Call Center. Their agents are, to put it mildly, not as qualified as the domestic ones.

Actually no.

To be exact, ICC - Indian Call Center.

ICC has been criticized for their accents and lack of abilities.

UA in fact has another center (not sure if it is contracted or not) in the Philippines, which is way much better.