I write about this topic with a heavy heart for two reasons.
First, wildfires have wrought destruction across California. The consequences are real. The damage is breathtaking. 42 people have died. Second, what I am about to cover is something I want to draw your attention to, not encourage you to abuse. It is worth writing about, however, to understand a key truth about travel waivers:
Not All Travel Waivers Are Created Equally
American, Delta, and United all have issued travel waivers for airports affected by the destructive wildfires in California.
American Airlines
If you are traveling out of Burbank, Los Angeles, Oakland, Sacramento, San Francisco, American will waive the change fee as long as origin and destination remain the same. You must have booked by November 10th and been originally scheduled to travel through November 13th. Your new travel can be up until November 18th. While the change fee is waived, any differences in fare will apply. More details here.
Delta Air Lines
Delta has a similar policy, though it is a bit more generous. Travel for today or tomorrow (does not have to be booked on November 10th or before) can be postponed until November 18th. The change fee is waived, but any difference in fare does apply. More details here.
United Airlines
But then there is United, who is far more generous than most. United’s travel waiver covers flights out of Burbank, Los Angeles, or San Francisco occurring on or before November 16th. More info here. Travel can be rebooked to any date on or before November 25th:
The change fee and any difference in fare will be waived for new United flights departing on or before November 25, 2018, as long as travel is rescheduled in the originally ticketed cabin (any fare class) and between the same cities as originally ticketed.
Did you catch that? Fare differences are waived. That makes the United travel waiver immensely more valuable than the waiver on American or Delta.
An opportunistic person might book travel immediately at the cheapest price, then change it to a preferred date in a higher fare class at no additional cost to save money. Book an early morning or late night flight on an off-peak day and rebook to prime time on the day before or Sunday after Thanksgiving. Yes, that is possible. And your trip need only connect through a hub like LAX or SFO, it does not have to originate or terminate there.
But don’t do it.
Cue the phrase, “This is why we cannot have nice things.”
Let’s give United some credit for offering such a compassionate waiver for fire-ravaged California. Here, United did not copy Delta but offered a far more generous waiver than either American or Delta. I want you to be aware of it so that if your travel plans truly are impacted by the fires, you know that you have many options on United. But don’t be the kind of person who ruins this for all of us. Please don’t game the system, lest we find ourselves with an equally restrictive waiver as American and Delta next time a natural disaster or storm comes along.
CONCLUSION
Travel waivers are sometimes of necessity and sometimes of grace. I think American and Delta are on one end of the scale and United is on the other, more graceful end. Let’s not ruin this trend by using this waiver for purposes beyond what it was intended.
@ Matthew — I an sure many of your readers would do this is a heartbeat after the way airlines have screwed over customers lately.
@Gene: You’re suggesting that those same readers are heartless and cruel. This isn’t about screwing the airline over, its about screwing society over here, and acting ethically and in good character. Knowing that, do you wanna take that back?
“United’s travel waiver covers flights outs of Burbank…” *out
“Queue the phrase…” *Cue
“I want you to be aware of it so that if you travel plans truly are impacted by the fires…” *your travel plans
It’s interesting that the travel waivers vary so much, and that not all the airports are covered, either. I wonder what factors are considered when making those decisions…
Thanks. Fixed.
Honestly, I would’ve have known about this until now…
Congratulations. More people will do this now that you just alerted people to the opportunity. I seriously doubt your public shaming will have any effect on anybody considering doing this. But at least you got a chance to feel self righteous.
By the way, why not do it? It’s not like you are looting wildfire victims’s homes. The only “victim” would be the airline. This hobby is all about leveraging sub-optimal company policies for personal gain. You of course would never do that I suppose. I know you would never do anything like try to take advantage of a company mistake, like a mispriced first class award that you knew was against their own policy.
I hope whatever is bothering you in life you are able to work through, and I hope you feel better soon. Sending my best wishes to you.
Disingenuous, condescending and empty replies are exactly what I would expect from you. I’m sure you are feeling just the right level of smug now. You might even have a career in blogging.
Unintelligent, angry and worthless comments that put others down is exactly what I would expect from an anonymous poster. I’m sure you are feeling just the right amount of smug now. That said, I think that you are a human, and have a lot of potential in life, whether in blogging or in whatever other profession you choose to go into.
I think that you are a mindless drone that is unable to construct a logical argument, and with poor reading comprehension skills to boot. You haven’t made a substantive point in any of your posts. It seems that you post only as a means to prop up your own ego by questioning the morality of others. You scold me for putting others down in the same breath as putting me down. Such shameless hypocrisy is quite impressive. I won’t be wasting any more time with a low IQ individual such as yourself, so you’ll have to practice your amateur psychology elsewhere.
Your snapshot does not reflect current time frame for United waiver terms.
Well it did when I published the article earlier today.
Sure, just like not taking advantage of known obvious mistake fares, threatening lawsuits and such, so as to ruin things for the rest of us in the future. You’d never do that either, right? Right?
@Ryan: They’re not the same. They’re putting this generous fare in for a specific reason, and its not in error. Threatening a lawsuit does no harm to anybody, unless the airline doesn’t fix the problem. Buying mistake fares is taking advantage of the airlines’ error. This was no error on the part of the airline.
@Ryan: Swiss First Class issue was not a fare mistake. I paid list price for my award ticket.
Southwest has a nice waiver, too. I only know this from trying to change a LAX-SJC and be offered any day, co-terminal, etc. for free
Honestly, that’s a pretty complicated process and all but the most advanced among us would probably struggle to dream that scenario up without your help…
When I read the headline, I knew it had to be regarding fare waivers but I’m not sure I would’ve thought about different fare classes within the same cabin.
Interesting indeed.
Are you an idiot? You expose something that few would think of and then tell them not to do it? Your vain shot at altruism is contemptible.
You would have to be an idiot if you believe fewer people will do it after exposure. Stop pretending you’re on a higher road! You’re just seeking clicks and glory through such exposure.
Is United being that flexible to be nice to its customers or because it thinks that allowing the flexibility will help alleviate potential operational issues and also sell more tickets in the end. If the load factor is high and some people are encouraged to delay their trips, United can make more money overall.
I would never have thought of that strategy to intentionally buy a close-in ticket after the waiver was announced. By publicizing it, ironically you may be encouraging others. Someone who would do this probably wouldn’t be shamed by your article.
I took advantage of the waiver this weekend on a ticket purchased 2 months ago. However, when I bought the ticket I fully intended to change it. I bought a redeye because it was of course cheaper, and I planned to rely on changing it via the SDC rules. Is that wrong? And was it wrong to use the waiver to make this long-intended change outside of the normal 24h period?
You big dummy! I didnt know anything about it but I do now! So does everyone else. Plain stupidity…
In stunned by most of the replies here, I really am. Matthew, I so enjoy your column and as a 1K with United, I saw the generous offer from them. I also had two of my relative’s homes evacuated in Thousand Oaks earlier.
How eAsily people can jump on others .
Thanksgiving blessings to you and all this week who have suffered such great loss
AA says: “Rebook in the same cabin or pay the difference”
Seems to me that is the same as United:
“as long as travel is rescheduled in the originally ticketed cabin”
Just different wording.
The difference between the two is fare class differences within economy class are waived on AA and not on UA.
Other way around, right?
To give United credit, they were also accommodating when I needed to switch originating airports yesterday. I was scheduled to fly from Burbank to San Francisco in the afternoon. Due to the fires the afternoon flights from Burbank to SFO have been consistently 2+ hours late, while the LAX to SFO flights have largely been on time. Even though it’s outside the language of the waiver, United allowed me to switch from a 1:50pm Burbank departure to a 2pm LAX departure. And as expected the Burbank flight was over 2 hours late while the LAX one was on time into SFO.
So they are showing good flexibility here and I agree, we should avoid taking inappropriate advantage of that.
Holy sh*r, Matthew! Your personal 200,000 air travel miles generate (at 53 lbs CO2 per mile) about 10.6 MILLION pounds of CO2 emissions PER YEAR.
You are, I hope, acknowledging your contribution to these wildfires and deaths. Please consider biking some of these miles in 2019. We’ll all breathe easier and on average, live longer.