United airlines dropping change fees - good news for cruisers!

[DaveOKC]

United Airlines says it listened to customers and is dropping an unpopular $200 fee for most people who change a ticket for travel within the United States.

“When we hear from customers about where we can improve, getting rid of fees is often the top request,” United CEO Scott Kirby said in a video posted Sunday.

United’s move will put pressure on American Airlines and Delta Air Lines to drop their change fees, also $200 on domestic travel.

United UAL, +3.09% said that it eliminated change fees for people who buy a standard or premium economy ticket for U.S. travel.

 

United also said that it will extend a broad waiver of change fees — including for international travel — through Dec. 31. Customers who pay the lowest fares, called “basic economy,” can also change tickets free because of the extended waiver announced Sunday.

And starting in January, it will let customers fly standby for free on other flights the same day as their booked flight.

[Hlitner]

United needs to play catch-up.  In terms of Domestic Passenger count United lags behind Southwest, Delta and American.  And now with the COVID problems killing international travel United needs to get more market share.  The #1 US Airline in terms of domestic passengers is Southwest which has almost twice as many passengers as United with a much smaller fleet.  Southwest also does far better in customer surveys.  Southwest has never charged change fees (on any ticket), has no luggage fees on the first two pieces of luggage, and has pretty decent customer service.  Personally, United is my least favorite major US Airline and we avoid them if we can fly Southwest or Delta.  As to International we try to fly the foreign carriers (especially if going to Asia) or Delta.   I will give United some credit for their Polaris Class (and the few Polaris Lounges) although it is taking them too many years to upgrade all their aircraft to the standards of Polaris.  Having flown Polaris to Italy my one of my thoughts was how an airline that could have such a decent business class service on that flight could have such awful first class on domestic!   Perhaps the kindest thing we can say about United is that one never knows what they will get in terms of service,  equipment, etc.

 

Hank

[DaveOKC]

Hank - the best news that hopefully will come from this is that American and Delta follow the lead.  I really like the ability to catch an earlier flight for free - after a cruise I book a later time to be safe and would love the ability (like in the old days) to standby on an earlier flight if I get to the airport in time.

 

Edited August 31, 2020 by DaveOKC

[bluesplayer]

Sometimes the “no change fee” results in a fee!  This happened this week when we changed a no fee change ticket..  you have to pay “the new fare”  $213.00 new fare fee to fly home 4 days later.

[Himself]

Will that go into next year when we may be cruising again?

[DaveOKC]

36 minutes ago, Himself said:

Will that go into next year when we may be cruising again?

Here is link - note Basic Economy is not included, but there does seem to be an exception:

Tickets: For tickets issued March 3 through March 31, 2020, customers will be permitted to change without paying a change fee to a flight of equal or lesser value for travel up to 24 months from the original ticket issue date. For tickets issued between April 1, 2020, and December 31, 2020, customers will be permitted to change without paying a change fee to a flight of equal or lesser value for travel up to 12 months from the original ticket issue date.

 

https://www.united.com/ual/en/us/fly/travel/change-fee.html

 

Edited August 31, 2020 by DaveOKC

[CruiserBruce]

1 hour ago, bluesplayer said:

Sometimes the “no change fee” results in a fee!  This happened this week when we changed a no fee change ticket..  you have to pay “the new fare”  $213.00 new fare fee to fly home 4 days later.

Was the new fare higher? That would easily explain it...

[CruiserBruce]

38 minutes ago, Himself said:

Will that go into next year when we may be cruising again?

For domestic flights, the fees ending is permanent. If you are asking about international flights, the "fee free" period ends Dec 31, 202, as of now.

[vicd1969]

For international flights, Delta is usually effectively free for change fees. They allow you to make changes to your itinerary if one of your flight legs gets changed on their schedule, which happens pretty frequently. I do agree that United is a bit inconsistent in service. Also, I want to drop a nice word in about using Flight Ease when travelling internationally - the flexible option is usually cheaper than the restricted fare on other online travel agency booking sites.

[CruiserBruce]

3 hours ago, vicd1969 said:

For international flights, Delta is usually effectively free for change fees. They allow you to make changes to your itinerary if one of your flight legs gets changed on their schedule, which happens pretty frequently. I do agree that United is a bit inconsistent in service. Also, I want to drop a nice word in about using Flight Ease when travelling internationally - the flexible option is usually cheaper than the restricted fare on other online travel agency booking sites.

All airlines (up to now, prior to these fee situations) allow you to change for free if there is a significant (definition varies by airline) time change in the flights.

[FlaMariner]

Looks like they are finally catching up to Southwest Airlines.....They've never had "change fees" or "baggage fees"...I love them.

 

It's also hard to feel sorry for the big guys....American, Delta, United......They never felt sorry for me when I was at the counter with luggage that weighed 51 pounds.......1 pound over.

[kelleherdl]

Both Delta and American followed United yesterday.

[DaveOKC]

14 hours ago, CruiserBruce said:

All airlines (up to now, prior to these fee situations) allow you to change for free if there is a significant (definition varies by airline) time change in the flights.

true - and often you can move to a higher priced flight if the airline changes the flight - I have done this many times.  Need to keep this in mind for the future.

 

Edited September 1, 2020 by DaveOKC