If airfare goes down can you rebook (United)?

The price on my United flight went down $193. I rebooked and got a flight credit; I was able to do this online, but I also changed the time of one of my flights. The flight credit is good for one year from my original purchase date (e.g., I purchased the original ticket in February 2025 and got a credit with a fly by February 2026 date).

I had regular economy (not basic economy) tickets.

Yes, this is easy to do with United. I've cancelled and rebooked many times before. Just always make sure it wasn't Basic Economy, but otherwise it's pretty straightforward.

The process is, you go into the reservation, cancel the flight, wait for it to go through (usually takes only a minute or two) and see that you have been issued a travel credit, then re-book a fresh one and when selecting payment, choose the travel credit you received. Any remaining difference stays on the credit, and you have one year to begin your trip from the time of original booking to use it, as Laura said. Although, I think sometimes it is a year from the date it is issued, so just be aware what it says.

Two things to note. First, this has been the process since I believe the start of covid(?) BUT it could change at any time based on the whims of the airline, though it would apply to new bookings going forward. Just be aware, they could revert back to a less customer-friendly policy in the future, so always be aware when purchasing. Second, if you found a cheaper flight that happened to have a different itinerary (earlier/later flight, move the day forward/back, etc), you don't need to cancel, you can just click "change flight" and update the existing booking. When selecting your desired flights, it will show price differences for each option. When you select the one you want and make the change official, if it's less they will issue a travel credit for that amount. So, if the adjustment involves any deviation from your prior flights, I'd recommend "changing" as opposed to cancelling, because I find it can be stressful cancelling and hoping nothing goes wrong with the new purchase. Like someone happens to swoop in and book the seats right then, or the price changes suddenly, or for technical reasons you are unable to complete the new purchase. Yikes.

I had the same experience as Laura when our United economy tickets dropped by about $230 apiece. I was nervous about doing it online, so I did it over the phone, and we got the travel credits good for one year from the original purchase date. One thing to be careful of--if part of your trip is on another carrier. Our flights were booked on united.com, but one leg was on Air Canada. When I rebooked, we somehow lost our Air Canada purchased seat reservations. It took some time on the phone and a sympathetic agent at Air Canada to get the seats back. So be careful if part of your flight is on a partner like Air Canada or Lufthansa.

And to answer your question about can you combine travel credits with other forms of payment if it is less than the cost of the flight, yes! You would pay any remaining balance with another form of payment, like credit card.

You could also combine multiple travel credits at once, if you had them. The only thing you cannot do is mix travel credits with travel certificates (they give you these when you get bumped from a flight or as goodwill when something goes wrong) or TravelBank funds (basically like a United gift card balance).

Not sure if this is true for United, but I did this with Delta and the credit for the adjustment in fare attaches to each person, not the person who paid. Great for couples who always travel together, but in my case I paid for tickets for my niece (graduation trip). Now she has a generous air credit in her name, but I cannot apply it to my future travel even though I paid for her original fare (of course I can use the credit for my ticket). Lesson learned!

BTW I used the chat function on Delta's official website to get the adjustment. It took awhile to override the AI bot that tried to "help" me - finally got a live chat session after I requested a live agent. It took maybe 5 minutes (after waiting about 10 for the live agent).

The same is true on United. Credits go to the passenger, not the purchaser of the ticket.

CL, I had slightly mitigating circumstances, but I was able to get the refund for someone else that I paid for returned to me as a travel certificate (from United) a couple of years ago. It may have been a fluke, but I called and asked and they said yes.

I mainly fly American. I am willing to pay the extra over basic economy and receive trip credit for either a price drop or if I have to cancel. I am NOT willing to pay the additional amount over that in order to get a fully refundable ticket. But sometimes my plans change and I want to cancel or change a flight - and the reasons would not be covered by trip insurance. With basic economy, I either lose the money or I lose flexibility.

I am still traveling quite a bit, so the trip credit works for now. When I slow down, the trip credit may be harder to use in time.

Are you paying for your United Polaris seats up front? At the time that you purchase you ticket?

If your goal is to save money - and you don't mind taking a seating risk - you might try buying your ticket first (refundable or not) and upgrading later.... where later might be soon after purchasing your ticket or months down the road.

But you must be willing to take a seating risk.

Most of the time, patience pays off for me and I get my United Polaris upgrade for much less than the upfront price. I have one ticket in play where I'm still watching upgrade prices and hoping.

Thanks so much, everyone — you’ve answered all my questions and this is super helpful! If the rules don’t change I’ll definitely use this strategy in the future. I don’t think it will work for us this time around, however, because we don’t plan to fly again within the next 12 months. Following the Europe trip we hope to take a long overdue road trip vacation and we aren’t likely to need to book another flight in 2026. So I think I’ll book fully refundable tickets soon, and maybe convert to standard tickets later if there is a significant price drop.

CW Social, can you please tell me more about how you get your upgrades to Polaris? Do you need to sign up for them after you book your tickets in the app? If so, is it immediately or down the line? Is there a way to monitor availability and upgrade prices? Are there strategies involved or do you just wait for the airline to notify you? On our most recent return trip from Europe there were a lot of empty seats in Polaris before we travelled. I was wondering how we might be able to update from Premium Economy if the same is true on our next flights. Thanks!

"CW Social, can you please tell me more about how you get your upgrades to Polaris?"
I purchase my non-Polaris ticket first. I buy refundable, but that is immaterial to the Polaris upgrades. Unless their pricing algorithms take it into account.

"Do you need to sign up for them after you book your tickets in the app?"
You do not need to sign up. You do have to monitor upgrade prices regularly. And I mean regularly. I've seen their upgrade "offers" go up and down and up within days. Upgrade offers are personalized. Your price isn't my price. I'm sure the algorithm is quite sophisticated.

If so, is it immediately or down the line?
Sometimes I get an upgrade "offer" immediately after clicking purchase. I've seen a little dialogue that will offer various prices for each United (not partner) leg. BTW, this entire strategy is only for the United legs, not any partner flights.

Is there a way to monitor availability and upgrade prices? Yes
Are there strategies involved or do you just wait for the airline to notify you? No

After you buy your flight and the 24 hour free-cancellation window has passed, you can View your flight and Change Seats, as many times as you wish. In the upper right corner of the seat map, you should see prices to upgrade beyond your current seat. Click on a specific seat to see its price for you.

Those prices change a lot. I typically see a bellcurve where they start at $X, curve upwards to a peak of $2X or $3x or even $4X about the time that business travelers are probably buying their Polaris seats. After that window, I typically see the prices begin to arc downwards as the flight date nears.

This all depends on seat availability, of course. If you happen to be flying to (let's say) Frankfurt in the days preceding a big business conference, there might be fewer Polaris seats available and less downward pressure on prices. If seats aren't selling, the United algorithm may try to entice you with upgrade offers.

When you see an offer you like, you should buy it, it may not last long and may not come around again. Until flight date nears. Then things can begin to happen again.

The latest I grabbed a Polaris offer was when I checked in for a flight and decided to take a peek. There was one lonely Polaris seat left, priced at 1/3 of what I had been seeing it previously and far less than what it would have cost when I bought my ticket.

Another good time to check is if you have multiple flights in play. On the day before/of/after one Polaris flight, it's a good time to check all of your other flights for upgrade offers. The algorithm seems to like to tempt you while you're enjoying your Polaris pleasures.

I've seen 2-for-1 offers. I bought domestic tickets for my parents and upgraded them to first during a holiday sale for half price. I don't know as much about when those happen as I'm normally traveling solo.

I may have 4 or 5 or 6 flights booked, stretching into next year. I rarely see more than a single offer, so I'm always checking all of my flights to see what I might find.

I try not to pay too much for my Polaris seats because I don't want the algorithm thinking of me as a "she'll pay anything" profile. I want them to think of me as their "watching for a deal" profile, when they have seat inventory. You have to decide what your upgrade profile is, and stick with it. Each time you upgrade, you are educating the algorithm on what you will pay for Polaris. And it remembers.

Yes, it's time consuming. I track my "flight upgrades" carefully. And I've saved thousands of dollars over purchasing Polaris up front.

And the risk you must be willing to take is that you never see an upgrade offer that you like and you fly your purchased seat.