Since the merger, United Airlines has offered a handy little trick for holding revenue tickets that has finally vanished. I’m frankly surprised it took so long to remove it, but I will sure miss it.
United actually had two tricks–a holdover from the Continental days–in which revenue tickets could be held either by clicking on the “phone order” page (for those not comfortable providing their credit card details online) or by clicking on the Western Union/pay by cash link (for those who wanted to pay their fares with cash). Both options were displayed on the final purchase screen, in the same field in which you enter your credit card information. Needless to say, in 2012 people don’t typically pay by phone or by cash if it can be avoided.
I focus on award bookings and am not a travel agent, but I still do quite a few revenue bookings with United for my clients and the “phone order” button was frequently pressed by me in order to send an itinerary over to a client prior to ticketing. With that option gone, I envision I will be taking advantage of United’s 24hr risk-free cancellation policy more in the future.
While I appreciate the chance to cancel after booking, I much prefer’s American Airline’s system of allowing a fare to be held prior to purchase. That way, if a trip did not work out, at least I would not have to wait for a refund (which sometimes takes several weeks with United). AA does not offer a 24hr courtesy cancellation period after booking while United, up to this week, has essentially offered a free two-day hold in addition to a 24hr post-booking courtesy cancellation offer.
What is driving this change? The “phone order” link was convenient way around United’s FareLock feature–a tool that allows a 3 or 7 day hold for a fixed price, usually between $10-20 that does not count toward the price of the purchased ticket. It is really no surprise that United dismantled this option in order to increase ancillary revenue. Still, I think very few people knew how to take advantage of this.
There is some good news in this. United still has the “phone order” link when purchasing award tickets, so at least when you are redeeming your miles you still can have a day or two to think about it.
American does not publish the fact that it offers a free cancelation within 24h, but they do indeed as they are required to by law.
See: http://airconsumer.dot.gov/rules/EAPP_2_FAQ.pdf
Page 14, 2.4.
I’ve taken advantage of this once this year already. (It was through my work TA, so I did not speak with American directly about it, but they were able to void the ticket with no fee <24h after ticketing)
Dan,
Perhaps you’ve just encountered sympathetic agents at the ExPlat desk, because I’ve been told the opposite.
2.4 states that an airline must allow reservations to he held or cancelled without penalty for 24 hours and I’ve been told by AA that because they allow the hold, they do not allow the refund after booking.
What have others experienced?
I was also under the impression the regulation permitted either-or.
For purposes of rolling the hold for an another 24 hour period (assuming the fares stay the same), AA’s policy is far easier as floating several purchases and then hounding UA for refunds.
fwiw, I just used the western union option to hold a ticket. .Sux wouldn’t ticket it with my e-cert, so I held it to get a PNR, phones web support, and got the discount applied. Worked like a charm.
“We will hold this reservation until midnight Mon., Dec. 10, 2012 in Kansas City, MO (MCI).”