Update 9/10/20: According to TPG starting January 1, 2021 this will also included flights to Mexico & Caribbean.
United Airlines has announced that it is permanently getting rid of change fees on all standard Economy and Premium cabin tickets for travel within the U.S. starting today. In addition starting on January 1, 2021 United customers can fly standby for free on a flight departure the day of their travel regardless of their ticket type or class of service. Premier members will also be able to confirm a seat on a different flight on the same day with the same departure and arrival cities if a seat in the same fare class is available. Other changes include:
- Award redeposit fees will be refunded for flights changed or cancelled more than 30 days before departure (previously 60 days)
- Unlimited changes with no fee will be extended for all new tickets issued through December 31, 2020
Really love these same day departure changes, hopefully more airlines follow this.
“permanent” F U United.
These are good changes for all airlines that are doing this however it sucks that it doesn’t include saver fares as those are the only ones i book. Also the window for refunding the award fees on award redemptions is too long. Should be shorter.
Covid did us all a favor and made American Major Airlines bearable
United really sucks for baggage fees these days.. When will they fix that?
Carry-ons…. $35?? WTH.
Get the United Explorer CC. Free baggage for you and a companion. Just one trip with my gf pays for the annual fee.
Wonder if Southwest will be forced to bring back free same-day standby now.
Delta and AA have announced similar or better flight changes matches per posts on DDF.
I think you have a typo, “department” might mean “departure”?
Fixed ty
I hate to be cynical but this is United we’re talking about. If they did this then you know there will be a catch somewhere. They’re probably only doing this so increase confidence in customers so that folks will book now feeling “okay” about being able to change later for no fee all the while United gets to pocket the much needed cash now.
The reason they’re doing this isn’t a “catch”. If it’s good for customers, why do we need to still hate on the change?
Airlines are for-profit businesses, so there’s always a catch.
If you read the united announcement, it says “… if a seat in the same ticket fare class is available”. Curious how this plays out. This just seems like a PR move. They will likely shift that fee to higher fares or fare classes the week of travel. I don’t have stats, but I would venture to say that a majority of changes happen during the week of travel. For instance, say you got a good deal on your flight and booked that low G or K tier fare class, do you really think it is going to be available the week or day of travel?
Look at Southwest Airlines as an example. Most routes, Southwest removes the Wanna Get Away fare from inventory the week of travel or a few days prior to departure. Sure no change fee, but paying the Anytime or Business Select fare is pretty expensive. It is just as bad as paying a $200 change fee.
“Sure no change fee, but paying the Anytime or Business Select fare is pretty expensive. It is just as bad as paying a $200 change fee.”
Lets say the last minute fare difference is $250 for total fare of $500 and you originally paid $250 for the ticket, so now you are paying $450 to change your flight vs buying new ticket at $500, so its $50 cheaper to buy the fare. Lets say they jack up fair to $600 under your example. Now you are paying $350 to change the ticket. So they would need to jack the price up $351 in your example to work which is possible. But would also lose a lot of last minute sales.
No the point is not about price, but fare class.
If you booked well in advance you probably bought a G or K class. Then when you want to change there won’t be any G or K left so you end up paying the $200 change fee plus the fare difference, exactly as before.
Unless let’s say you booked 9/1 for a flight on 10/1. When it’s 9/28 and you want to change, you don’t want times around 10/1 but times around 11/1, then this policy change would benefit you a lot. How often this happens depends on the customer but I would say it is very rare for most.
In the past, United usually would level the fare buckets on the day of travel (Put all 9s in fare bucket. you cannot actually buy the cheapest bucket due to fare rules/advance purchase requirements)
This does not always reliably happen though, see https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/32594388-post493.html
It takes a once a century pandemic for United to begin to treat its customers better
Indeed, I think this is the first time ever I have seen United leading the industry in positive changes.