A few weeks I bought a ticket SFO-FRA in Business Class (Z) for $3.498...it is now $3,078....anyway to refare and $400 back?

Yes, just call. (You can also try online, but I find calling more reliable.)

Yes you should be able to do it online through My Itineraries. If that doesn't work you can call. Officially you would only be entitled to receive a voucher for the fare difference good on a future flight, but sometimes they end up just refunding the difference to your credit card (they probably won't tell you this on the phone..but you may just notice a credit shows up on your statement when you were expecting a voucher in the mail).

The nice lady just did it for me. Her computer said voucher only but she went her superior and got the difference refunded to my CC.

And I thought I had an great deal to start!

^^to UA refare policy!

I am amazed... Would you like to refare if the cost went up too? I don't think so...

This is increddible. I cannot believe my eyes, particularly considering that it was Z ticket...

It works for any fare class.

I don't see why you're so surprised. While it might seem counter-intuitive, this process actually drives more revenue to United, or at least guarantees more of it. Knowing that I can refare for free to recoup fare drops means that I'm willing to book flights a lot earlier than I otherwise would, which not only guarantees my ticket with United but also gives them my money that much earlier.

This refare policy is intended to remove any perceived penalty for early booking and therefore to encourage booking as early as possible. By doing so, it also potentially reduces the loss of passengers who might have waited for a fare drop, didn't see one, and then booked on another carrier who has lower last-minute fares. Moreover, United doesn't really lose anything by this, because refaring to a lower fare simply eats up a lower fare that United planned to sell anyway. Additionally, most refares are issued as vouchers, which have some (non-negligible) breakage, so UA "loses" even less this way... not to mention that vouchers encourage future business, since they are usably only on United. Finally, most people don't even know about refares, so this affects only a small portion of the population.

Overall, I'd say the customer goodwill generated by UA's liberal refare policy, and the additional future business encouraged both through goodwill and the issuance of vouchers, far outweighs any potential lost opportunity cost. IMHO.

I am surprised because I have seen this question discussed many times in Miles&More (Lufthansa) thread and everybody was always laughing. In my mind, they were right, because IMHO this would be absolutely contra productive.

As an example: We have half full C class cabin. We want to fill it up, so we come up with special, to attract more people. What if we do not attract more people and lose some of the revenue that we have already earned on this refare?

On the other hand, we MUST incease price, let's say because of fuel cost. Is it than fair that newly booking paxs must pay more than those who jumped early and predicted the cost rises?

Still, it seems weird to me...

I get the voucher refund as it can't be used unless you buy another United ticket. But, I don't see why they are refunding CCs. It's great for the customer though.

By lowering fares to that point, UA (or any carrier) is already assuming that they will sell lower fares and not higher ones. It's a gamble, yes... but IMHO a worthy one.

It's not a new concept, either. Many retailers offer price-protection, whether as an explicit policy or simply implicit in their return policy. If I buy a widget for $100 and next week it goes on sale for $80, in almost all cases I can either get the $20 back directly (using the retailer's price-protection policy) or I can return the widget I bought for a full refund and buy it again for the lower price.

So, a retailer puts a widget on sale to attract more customers... but what if the retailer fails to attract more customers and instead loses some of their already-earned revenue from people returning their full-price widgets and buying them on sale? It's exactly the same chance that UA is taking. UA's refare policy is nothing more than the airline version of the above, although it works out even better for UA because they usually issue vouchers which have significant breakage and which encourage future bookings, compared to giving cash back (as retailers do) which does neither one.

Yes, because they (whether by choice or necessity) waited longer to buy. People who book early not only guarantee a sale to the airline (refundable fares notwithstanding) but also provide the airline with revenue earlier, allowing them to "ride the float" on that revenue compared to people who book later.

Of course, the whole discussion of "fair" or not is irrelevant. It would be equally fair for the airline not to have a refare policy, but the fact that they have one doesn't make anything less fair. Regardless, as you can see the refare/price-protection concept isn't new, and almost every retailer implements some form of it. The only reason it's surprising here is because it's not a concept usually applied to airfare, but I don't see why it's any more risky or harmful to apply it to airfare than to any tangible widget. If it works for retailers, it should work equally well for airlines (or in UA's case, perhaps even better since they give vouchers back rather than actual cash).

I don't, either. The only thing I can think of is that it somehow reduces their back-end costs since they don't have to pay for printing and postage for the vouchers, not to mention the manpower required to reissue the vouchers when the originals never arrive. Overall, though, I'd think they could save more money (and still keep breakage relatively high) by simply issuing electronic credit like WN does.

cepheid - thanks for a very comprehensive response. I can see your points. I am not sure about any other country, but we do not have anything like your price-protection here in Australia and to be honest I doubt about any other country. That may also explain that it seems that UA is the only airline I can find so far that does this.

I don't think it's just us Aussies who are surprised by it... I believe Europeans think it odd too!

Sure - it's great for UA pax... booked on UA flights... but it has a (small) downside, which is obvious when you see all the threads started by folks who seem to think it must be a universal thing...

They book on ANOTHER airline (particualrly a non-US based one) - and then cry "unfair" when they can't get a refare.....

And no.. they don't get a lot of sympathy....

They generally DO get advised to buy a fare they are happy with.. then STOP CHECKING!!

While UA is alone amoung the legacy airlines, other (smaller) airlines, AS, B6, (& YX?), do no cost refares in addition to UA and multiple others do this with a fee. Believe WN also has a similiar program.

Also keep in mind that the refare is not automatic. The passenger must ask for it. Many passengers presumably do not do this.