Fare Dropped $70 on United, how to get refund?

Well, I pulled the trigger on a three legged trip we have in late February 2010 to Hawaii late last week, and this morning the identical itinerary (same flights/dates) are now available for $70 less a ticket.

Does anyone know how I work United to get credited back the $70?

Note I would post this on Flyertalk but I can't figure out where this type of question belongs.

I think the short answer is you don't.

In the distant past, you use to be able to call the airline and they might issue you a credit towards you next purchase with them but, in recent years they've started charging you the change fee, which is typically $100 to $150 and then issuing you a credit for anything over that amount. Needless to say, it's not often an airfare drops that much anymore.

I haven't received a credit for an airfare drop in several years. I can't list all the ailrines I've called but, the typical answer was that they'd credit any amount over the ticket change fee for future purposes. Most of the time the drop was less than the change fee and I'd have ended up paying them for a reduction in price.

Still, you can always call the airline to see what their policy is. I believe SWA's is the only one that still gives you credit without charging the ticket change fee but, since SWA's doesn't fly from our home airport, I'm not sure.

I have to confess that I never really understand why people should expect a refund if a price drops after a purchase has been made. I don't suppose those same people would be happy if, some time after a purchase, the vendor phoned them and said they wanted more money because the price had gone up.
We all have to make decisions about whether we are willing to pay a price or not, and then generally have to live with the decision. Last year, as an example, we paid about £200 per ticket for a flight. That same flight happened to be advertised in an e-mail flyer nearer the flight date at less than half the price. Obviously I could have waited and hoped that seats would still be available at a lower price, but I wanted the certainly of travelling on the desired dates and at the desired times. For that I effectively paid a premium and accept that fact.

While I agree with what you are saying Keith, this falls under the heading of not leaving additional money on the table if I'm able to pick it up as well. I don't feel entitled to the refund, but at the same time I don't wish miss an opportunity for one if it exists.

I found the answer on United's website: http://faq.ua2go.com/display/4/kb/browse/cat.aspx?cid=1003&kb=1&L1cid=1003&level=2&

Basically, I need to see the fares drop more than $150 to realize a credit.

"When we introduce new fares or reduce current fares in a particular market, you may change a previously purchased ticket (purchased on or after March 20, 2009) to the new fare if:

the change is made prior to departure;
you do not change the flight, date, origin, destination or stopover points;
reservations are confirmed in an appropriate class of service;
all fare rules are met; and
the lower fare is not a united.com-only fare.
To change your ticket to the new fare, you may request a credit voucher (for a nonrefundable ticket) or a refund (for a refundable ticket) through the My Itineraries page at united.com or by calling United Reservations at 1-800-UNITED-1 (1-800-864-8331). A $150.00 administrative fee will be assessed for domestic (U.S./Canada) tickets. Fees vary for international tickets. Any applicable penalties are retroactive to the new fare ticket."

That's what I've been finding for the last several years. Essentially, since it's a "change", they charge customers the fee for making a ticket change. In this case, there's that $150 administrative fee.

You should call United and request a credit for the difference to be used within 1 yr. I don't think UAL charge a change fee. In March, my cousin bought a ticket to Hong Kong for $1100 for travel in April. I found a cheaper airfare for him 1 wk later. He called UAL and got a $400 credit toward future travel without a change fee. (I am still waiting for him to treat me for dim sum since I save him hundred of dollar). I would definitely call and try to get the credit ( hopefully no change in this policy since march.) I hope you have booked the tickets via UAL. If they were booked via a travel agent, the UAL won't do it.

Airfare

I don't know about United but with Southwest the fare went down after I bought , I was told by their representative who walked me thru process that change can be made online and they credit you the difference.

Airline

You do it as a change of flight , then type in same flight as the change and it credits you the difference

UAL can't do the credit online. you have to talk to their agent

jejones3329 said:

I don't know about United but with Southwest the fare went down after I bought , I was told by their representative who walked me thru process that change can be made online and they credit you the difference.

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Southwest is the most liberal and reasonable of all the airlines. It's actually customer friendly. Is it any wonder they make money when the rest of the industry loses money? If they were a choice from our home airport, they'd be at the top of my list for flights. Unfortunately it's a 3 hour drive and over $7 each way in turnpike charges just to fly them. I just doesn't make sense to add on the cost of gas, turnpike fee's and a total of 6 hours drive time when my local airport is only 30 minutes away and the fares are about the same.

For tickets purchased before May 15, you can still get a voucher for the difference; but you have to call. United changed its policy recently and will no longer refund the difference in vouchers for free; there is now $150 change fee. I miss the old rule.

As travelers, it seems we all want our cake and eat it too. I find the best strategy is to buy at the price you're comfortable with and not look back once you do.

The price to rebook and pay the change fee will almost always outweigh the price drop so why fret over it?

I recently noticed some online site advise price guarantee. For example, orbitz.com has the price assurance which offers a refund when someone else books the same flight for less. I am going to try them when I book my timeshare trips next time since I usually book far in advance. Has any one got any refund this way?

janej said:

I recently noticed some online site advise price guarantee. For example, orbitz.com has the price assurance which offers a refund when someone else books the same flight for less. I am going to try them when I book my timeshare trips next time since I usually book far in advance. Has any one got any refund this way?

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I believe that price guarantee is for a flight booked on another site, etc. on the same day. I don't think they don't guarantee the prices if they come down weeks/months later.

How Orbitz Price AssuranceSM works

Here is what I copied from the site

Once you book on Orbitz, we start tracking to see if another Orbitz customer subsequently books the same flight or hotel reservation on Orbitz at a lower price.

If that happens, we'll issue a refund for the difference. Amounts range from $5 to $250 per airline ticket or $5 to $500 per hotel reservation.

We'll continue tracking until the day you leave. So each time the price drops and another customer subsequently books your same itinerary for a lower amount, your refund amount will increase.

Expect to receive your refund check approximately 6-8 weeks after your trip is complete. We'll mail it to the billing address for the credit card used to make the booking. You'll have 90 days from the date the check is issued to cash it.

That is good then . . . I think they've changed their policies.

Southwest is the most user friendly airline around. With fares as volatile as they are, it might be woth the 3 hour drive!

Because I'm curious, I've been re-searching my itnerary every day or so to see if the fares will drop further.

This afternoon the fare on my itnerary returned to the price I paid for the ticket. American, which lowered it's fares by the same amount has remained with the lower fare this search, but it will be interesting to me to watch and track these.

I won't bore you all with future play-by-play unless they come crashing down below the magical $150 point.

UWSurfer said:

Because I'm curious, I've been re-searching my itnerary every day or so to see if the fares will drop further.

This afternoon the fare on my itnerary returned to the price I paid for the ticket. American, which lowered it's fares by the same amount has remained with the lower fare this search, but it will be interesting to me to watch and track these.

I won't bore you all with future play-by-play unless they come crashing down below the magical $150 point.

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In case you weren't aware, you can use YAPTA to track changes for a specific set of flights and then get an e-mail when there is a change of any amount (okay, I probably didn't need to know when it went down by $0.20) or just by $150 or more. Great service, although there are consipiracy theorists on the internet who suggest YAPTA is the reason for the United change in policy. -- Suzanne

SuzanneSLO said:

In case you weren't aware, you can use YAPTA to track changes for a specific set of flights and then get an e-mail when there is a change of any amount (okay, I probably didn't need to know when it went down by $0.20) or just by $150 or more. Great service, although there are consipiracy theorists on the internet who suggest YAPTA is the reason for the United change in policy. -- Suzanne

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Yes YAPTA is cool, but it doesn't accept a multi-city trip, like our 3 legged trip. I did put one of the legs into Yapta...sort of a canary in the coal mine thing...but it won't do our full itenerary (LAX -> OGG -> LIH -> LAX).

Still a cool tool.

When you click on the add a flight connection in Yapta, choose the multiple connection option for your flight. This will allow you to add the second leg of your flight.

sailingman22 said:

When you click on the add a flight connection in Yapta, choose the multiple connection option for your flight. This will allow you to add the second leg of your flight.

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Ahh, thank you for that!

To acknowledge Keith, the fare popped up even higher so, yes I suppose I should be paying the airline more now.

Here's a new wrinkle I could use a bit of info on. We booked this itinerary because of the flight departure times and the non-stop status. There's now been a change to the last leg of our flight. It appears the non-stop from LIH to LAX (United Flt 66) has been eliminated and replaced with a flight to SFO, connecting with a flight to LAX, getting us home a few hours later than originally booked.

Would that provide us grounds to get a refund on this purchase and rebook a different set of flights? IF so, how long would we have to do this?

As a practical matter, all flights for this trek have gone up so it's doubtful we'd find less expensive flights right now, but it does pose some questions I don't know the answers to.

Just B4 I flew my family to London, Virgin Atlantic dropped their fare by $10 per ticket.
They also changed the flight schedule by 15 minutes, requirung me to notify our driver.
-- "Damn Them! Damn Them All to Hell!" (Planet of the Apes).

[Perhaps overreacting]