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American and United - fee waiver update

Posted by (Central Connecticut, USA) on

Here is an article about recent updates by American and United:

https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/airline-news/2020/04/07/coronavirus-united-airlines-waiving-change-fees-through-end-year/2960246001/

United is offering fee waivers for travel through the end of 2020, and American covers flights through 9/30/20. There is a catch to United's new policy: travelers must make a decision and change or cancel their flight by April 30. (Travelers due to fly before May 31 don't have to meet this deadline.) Unlike United, American ticket holders don't have a deadline to decide whether to change or cancel their ticket,

I would expect that Delta will follow up with similar changes.

Posted by
281 posts

Thanks for sharing this update. So, now what do we do? Last fall we booked tickets to Canada with United. We were scheduled to depart on June 19, 2020. The tour we were going on has been cancelled, so now we just have to figure out what to do with our flights. I've read posts on this forum from others who have gotten quite the runaround trying to get a refund. I'm afraid that United will play games and not actually, officially cancel our flight so that we will not be entitled to a refund. I am aware of the benefits of waiting until the last minute for the airline to cancel. But if we wait for that, then we will have missed this deadline of April 30th (as mentioned in the article). To me this is an unfair way for United to get customers to accept a travel voucher. So what do we do? I'd rather receive a refund!

Posted by
759 posts

What do you do? There is no universal answer. Corporate game playing, yes but United’s time frame matches up to US Fed standards (30 day) in relation to the shutdown. If the Feds go longer United will extend, if the Feds don’t then they won’t.

The decision is yours. Wait and risk it or take a voucher.

Posted by
3992 posts

I just started a thread about how Delta treated me today with a flight itinerary that was canceled (JFK-Zürich) and one that was not (LGA-Montréal). In both cases, I was given a refund. The whole process was surprisingly easy.

Posted by
10203 posts

For United I wonder how this would work for flights paid for with United miles. I know I can cancel and deposit the miles back into the account, but if they waive the fee for that I would like that better! My first flight is on September 3. I haven't made a final determination of whether I will cancel the 8+ week trip, but I'm pretty sure that will end up happening.

Posted by
1103 posts

On 4/17/20 Delta announced a similar fee waiver for trips scheduled through 9/30/20. Credits are available through 9/30/22.

Posted by
3992 posts

Andrea, my husband paid for one of his Delta trips using miles and Delta refunded the miles into his account during the phone call with the Delta agent so he saw them re-deposited in real time with no fees. I would hope that United would do the same thing.

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