Refund on United

So true about it never hurts to ask. It's likely because of the change that United made that it was possible. If you'd just called and asked because you changed your mind about going and it was non refundable, that would have been a no.

We just had a significant flight change made by the airlines. They gave us every bad alternate fight they could come up with. When I finally spoke to a real live person and asked about the direct flight that existed but wasn't given as an option, she worked it out with her supervisor, and we were so grateful that she took the time to find a great solution.

That is great! I usually fly Delta and very often just get flight credit when I cancel a flight. I agree the refund was offered because of the change in flight, I assume. Great win for you!

Unrelated (but in keeping with the "it doesn't hurt to ask"), we recently returned from Mexico. Our return flight was to San Francisco with connection in LAX. At check-in, we were told flight to LAX was oversold and they offered us compensation to take a later flight on Alaska that would go direct to SFO. But we had comfort+ seats and those were not available, and no guarantee of seating together. We would arrive earlier in SFO than original flight with connection. Agent offered $300 each, we said how about $600 each. Agent said yes quickly (they were really desperate, I guess!). Said we would get email with gift card by the end of day.
I then had to work with Alaska agent for a while so they could seat my minor child with one of us, but we arrived in SFO earlier than we would have on original flight. But of course, day later no email with gift card. After multiple calls and filing a complaint online, and after 10 days of our flight, we got a call from Delta apologizing. They sent gift cards for $900 each for the inconvenience.
The comfort+ seats were free upgrade otherwise we would have requested a refund (it has happened with me before and they were quickly to refund that).

I had another ‘it doesn’t hurt to ask’ experience last year when I went to Australia with my friend who lives in Portland, OR. We were flying from Portland via SFO to Melbourne. She was flying back to Portland via SFO from Sydney at the end of the trip. I had no reason to go back to Portland because I would have had to take another flight back to Sacramento. I priced the ticket to SFO and it was considerably more expensive. This was for business class. I checked to Sacramento. Same thing. I got the ticket to Portland because it was so much less expensive, even though I would have had to take another flight home. I waited about a month and then called United and asked if I could terminate the flight in San Francisco because my plans had changed. Absolutely! They didn’t charge me more either.

Never hurts to ask. I am curious, how much of a change was made to the flight, that your connection time was shorter and you were able to get a refund?

I consider myself lucky. Every time United has changed an itinerary, it's always been for the better. On an upcoming flight from AMS to RIC, they just recently changed my connection time at IAD from 3:20 to 4 hours. I'm content with that.

"they offered me a one time change"

With United, if you are not happy with "a significant change" (which they do not specifically define) you can cancel the itinerary for a refund, even if it was originally nonrefundable.

https://www.united.com/en/us/fly/company/schedule-change-policies.html

"If your flight’s schedule changes by more than 30 minutes, you can book another United or United Express flight for free. Your new flight must leave from the same airport within 24 hours of your original flight time."

"If the scheduled departure or arrival times on your flight change significantly or we can’t seat you in the same cabin, you can request a refund."

Even if it is a 5 minute change, "it never hurts to ask."

That’s great, Andrea. I spent an hour on the phone with American last night trying to have a credit applied to my reservation. It took three people to figure out how to do it. This morning I decided to check my credit card statement only to find the credit was not applied to the fare. I called and spent another forty minutes speaking to two people in order get the credit applied. I had to rebook the ticket. Thankfully the fare had not increased.
One leg of my journey is on a “ luxury bus”! I’ve never had to do so on that route ever in the thirty plus years of flying to and from. A 40 min flight is now a two hour bus ride.

Thanks for all the stories!

Most of the airlines are revaluating routes and schedules due to high fuel costs. They do not see fuel prices declining anytime soon, and one way to combat that is to reduce the number of flights on a route, filling planes to capacity.

I suspect we will see more changes to booked flights, and more flexibility in refund options, maybe even encouraging those with bargain basement price tickets to cancel, figuring if they can book people at higher prices, the numbers work better.

I have a cheap Delta ticket to Dublin in July, I keep watching for the change notices. I can add, the price of my itinerary is up 25% since I booked.

I've gotten to change flights on Delta and American even with the cheapest tickets after they've made changes to my itinerary. Once they made my layover under 40 minutes and I just wasn't comfortable with that.

VAP, I believe the threshold is 3.5 or 4 hours difference on United. Honestly the new flight meant I wouldn’t have such a long layover at SFO, though if my flight was delayed from Sacramento it might have been an issue.

Diane, I think these are trying times for airlines. I expect a lot of short flights will be canceled.

Paul, I think you’re right that airlines are going to make many changes for the foreseeable future. I’m wondering what happens if we are in Europe and our flight home is cancelled and we can’t rebook.

CWsocial, I have had flight changes before on United but they weren’t a problem. What really surprised me about the situation I just had was that they let me cancel the entire trip. And I was shocked that they offered a refund, but I happily accepted it.

What really surprised me about the situation I just had was that they let me cancel the entire trip.

It's a great policy, and nice to have a good surprise!

There's an interesting tip to consider in this. As long as you don't "accept" the change, you are under no obligation to do so. If I get an itinerary revision for a trip that I have any uncertainty about, including uncertainty about the change itself, I might not accept that change until whatever uncertainty clears up. I don't know if there is a time limit, though I've waited weeks in some situations.

A downside is that until you accept the change, you can't make any changes or upgrades to your seat assignment.

I basically call these itinerary changes "golden tickets" because of the flexibility you have to make changes (and even refunds, as in this situation) to your itinerary, within some parameters. And the further in advance you book, the more likely there might be such a change, which sometimes allows you to change to a routing that you might have preferred, if not for a higher price.

As long as you don't "accept" the change, you are under no obligation to do so.

This happens to me a lot because I usually book my flight months and months in advance. So it is frequent that there is a change in schedule, connection, time. Flying Delta from SFO is not the best as it involves at least one connection. Last year, I had a (brutal) itinerary that was SFO-Atlanta-Paris-Marrakech. I had upgraded to Premium Select for the ATL-Paris section.
Then they switched my itinerary with connection in NYC (JFK) and my connection in Paris went down from 3 to 1 hour. I said no way. I didn't click the "accept" until I had researched other options and had to contact Delta directly.

After much discussion, they let me connect in Detroit and I would be on an Air France to Paris. Since I had paid for premium select (I think I used miles), they had to put me (after much discussion on the phone) on the AF Premium cabin which was great. I then had just under 3 hours in Paris to connect which was similar to my original itinerary.

Side note: it is rare for Delta to send me emails with changes. So I have a morning routine to check their website daily for my flights in July, September and November! Sometimes they change planes and seats, and sometimes there is a schedule change waiting to be “accepted”.