ivoryboi

United is offering Southwest Airlines customers affected by the recent announcement to ground certain aircraft for inspection the ability to purchase a non-refundable, standby ticket for $150 each way (origin and destination, including tax). This policy is valid for customers with Southwest tickets purchased on or before April 2, 2011 for travel through Wednesday, April 6, 2011. To purchase a standby ticket, present your Southwest Airlines ticket to a United Airlines Ticket Counter representative at your departure airport.

DBCme

Link:
http://www.united.com/page/article/0,6867,53724,00.html

boycruz

BUT keep your southwest ticket (if paper ticket) so you can get refund on
Southwest if you give to UA or throw away its cash thats gone

this only applies to paper tickets

kwildnj

While I am hardly an expert on Southwest's ticketing policies (nor for that matter a fan of the airline), I am fairly certain WN is close to 100% Electronically Ticketed.

I also believe that WN's tickets will not be signed over to UA for transit, but instead just used to verify that a Passenger meets the requirements (Purchased before April 2, for travel Between April 2 and 6, as well as the origin and destination)

Also, this turns into a win-win for United. They get revenue for seats that otherwise would have gone out empty. In addition, it gives UA the opportunity to court WN passengers during a time that I am sure they are quite frustrated with Southwest.

Interestingly this does not seem to be reciprocal on Continental as well. A look at Continental.com found no similar policy listed on their website.

Also, I would presume UA would honor tickets to/from nearby cities. IE: ISP-MDW on WN would be honored for LGA-ORD on UA.

o mikros

Also on co.com, though takes some hunting:

http://www.continental.com/CMS/en-US...72-2085-1-1178

kwildnj

'twas looking for the "Important Notices" tab on the homepage and it wasnt there.


Why thanks!

MarkXS

Would be more of a win-win for UCH (UA/CO) if they included some polite but to-the-point verbiage such as:

"We wish we could offer you a lower price by using the value of your Southwest ticket, but Southwest does not allow other airlines to accept their tickets, even in emergencies. Unlike United and Continental, where we do interoperate will all other major airlines when necessary."

UA/CO has my permission to use my text

fastair

No, because when other carriers have ceased operations, even those that do cooperate with other carriers, UA has consistently done the exact same thing they are doing here...require proof of ticket purchase before a certain date, and then a special fixed fare regardless if UA can access the value of the original ticket or not. With WN, this is the exact same as every other carrier that has ceased operation in which UA has done this for, except WN hasn't ceased operation.

MarkXS

Advertising, my friend, advertising. It's impossible for WN to do a FIM or rule 80/242 or whatever it (unofficially) is nowadays.

It's *possible* for UA to push pax over to AA, DL, F9 and vice-versa in short-term crisis situations. Like when UA had a subfleet grounded and F9 made big hay out of it in DEN.

UA needs to make this a marketing opportunity. Otherwise the WN flyers may read/hear the policy as "damn United won't even take my ticket without charging me another $150" instead of its intent, which is to capture future possible UA customers.

Whether or not UA *would* accept the value of the ticket towards a special UA fare is irrelevant. The important thing to stress to distressed WN pax is that buying a WN ticket is what put them at higher risk of being stranded, and UA is bending over backwards to help even though WN won't give UA a cent.

unavaca

This is great if you're holding a ticket on a traditionally expensive route, like SFO-BOS...

imgonnafly

The release says nothing of a paper ticket, why do we assume they need a paper ticket? There is no way the average passenger understands the difference between a paper ticket and a PNR. I assume passengers who print out their PNR will be honored.

Global Express

How will UA know someone is being honest and has a PNR on WN if they don't have a paperticket?

o mikros

Exactly what I was thinking, as UA can't verify records from WN. I guess, though, since they're only standby tickets, all they're doing is getting extra revenue from unsold seats. Any UA customers would either have already bought their tickets for the next few days or would be business customers who wouldn't be willing to take a gamble on last-minute availability. It really is a win-win for UA.