Over the weekend, United clandestinely updated its schedule change policy in a dramatically customer-unfriendly way. There is no justification for the policy change. None.
New United Schedule Change Policy
Up until Saturday, a schedule change that resulted in an arrival of two hours or more earlier or later than originally scheduled meant a passenger could elect to refund the ticket.
Now, a schedule change of 25 hours or more will be necessary.
How much does @united want to conserve cash? Before Saturday, after a schedule change of more than two hours, United happily would refund you. The new policy is 25 hours. Spokeswoman said: “We do everything we can to rebook customers in as timely a manner as possible.” pic.twitter.com/BgEQ1PsyHA
— Brian Sumers (@BrianSumers) March 7, 2020
Yes folks, if United cancels your flight to London today but puts you on the flight the day before or day after, you’re technically stuck…even if the schedule change doesn’t work for you.
So if you have a meeting in Tokyo on Tuesday and your flight on Monday is canceled, Untied can rebook you on Tuesday, you arrive on Wednesday, miss your meeting, and United now will not allow you to cancel your ticket.
That is just wrong. It is disgusting. We don’t contract for a particular aircraft or a particular seat number, but we certainly contract to travel on a particular date and time. This schedule change gives United broad power to disrupt your travel plans without recourse.
United plans to apply this policy retroactively to previously booked tickets…an even shadier move.
Agents Still Empowered To Empathize
Of course United is going to try to work with you. Even as it seems likely United is preparing to cut its scheduled and operate some flights on an every-other-day basis rather than a daily basis, it’s not like you are necessarily stuck with a flight a day later or day before.
United will still try to get you to your destination as quickly as possible.
Just don’t bank on a refund if the new schedule doesn’t work for you.
It may pay to escalate or to be demanding on the phone…and I don’t recommend that lightly. But United tells reservation agents, “You are empowered to make the best decision based on individual situations.”
That means agents will still have discretion. Hold them to it…don’t let them tell you to send an email or reach out to United’s refund department. Each agent is empowered to cancel your ticket, if you can convince them. Use that fact to your advantage.
United told its gate agents:
Please do not send customer requests to the United.com/refunds page or the refund desk if they do not qualify for a refund. It is important that we set proper expectations and provide solutions to customers within policy.
Agents may not want to “get in trouble” by refunding your ticket, but they can.
Why The Policy Change?
United says, “This change allows us to accommodate our customers by offering more options to rebook their flights.”
Utter bollocks. Orwellian doublespeak.
It’s a a way to preserve cash. Pure and simple.
If United want to “accommodate” passengers with more options, it would allow refunds.
If United would just “fess up” I think people would be much more understanding, even though there is still no defense for its policy.
United On The Record
I reached out to United about this issue, hoping it would be adjusted before this even goes to press. Here’s its response:
“We’ve made reductions to our international and domestic schedules and know many customers are impacted as a result. Our goal is to rebook as many people as possible without interruption and right now, more than 90 percent of impacted customers are being put on a flight that is within 2 hours of their original booking. For any rebooking that goes beyond 2 hours, those customers can change for free or cancel altogether, and use the value of that ticket toward future travel up to 15 months from their original ticket issue date.”
That’s all well and good, but if a cancellation leads to a missed family event or business meeting, what good is the credit if no other travel is planned?
CONCLUSION
Call me foolishly optimistic, but I really think United crossed a line here. I hope that as Kirby and his team consider the negative ramifications of this action, they will quickly rescind this shortsighted, foolish policy change.
Want to know why many people don’t trust Scott Kirby with the keys to the company? Here’s Exhibit A right here. This has his penny pinching, America West hands all over it. While I hope UA gets taken to the woodshed and backtracks, my fear is this just gets copied by the other airlines in our monkey see, monkey do world.
True. I’ve called him a money grubbing soulless bean counter who’d squeeze a silver dollar until the eagle screamed in the past. This does nothing to change my opinion. Profiting from illness and fear seems low even for him and his company.
They’re setting the table for their planned Coronavirus cancellations errrr “schedule changes”. They cash, they’re in trouble and they’re not about to hand that precious cash back to anyone under any circumstances. The hits just keep coming with UAL. Let’s just hope they finally slip under.
Even more indefensible : no breakfast meat at ORD B18 or other B United Club today
They’re setting the table for their planned Coronavirus cancellations errrr “schedule changes”. They need cash, they’re in trouble and they’re not about to hand that precious cash back to anyone under any circumstances. The hits just keep coming with UAL. Let’s just hope they finally slip under.
UA’s true colors are becoming ever clearer. They are now sliding down the scale from merely greedy to downright unethical and sleazy.
I don’t understand why you are so outraged, Matthew. United has dramatically increased the ability to re-book flights due to Corona Virus. With schedule cuts imminent, these are the kind of changes that will need to be made in order for the airline to remain viable.
Could it be that you were hoping to take unfair advantage of this policy in some way? I think the pot is calling the kettle black.
@Andy K – the real question is why are you defending this policy? The airline wants to have a policy that they can change when you fly by a day and will keep your money if that doesn’t work for you… That is not good enough. Particularly, when it is done retrospectively.
If they can’t be viable except for taking customers money and then not deliver on the service…should we really want them around?
If Matthew (probably one of United’s greatest fans) isn’t okay with this, then something is really off.
Likely born of desperation, but they are very unwise indeed to be the first to lead with such an obviously self-serving policy. The position of the others is no better but at least they can sit back and learn from the backlash.
I am not an attorney. However, when we purchase a ticket, that is a legal contract that passenger agrees to pay $$$ while the carrier, United in this case agrees to transport the flyer + the bag(s) from A to B with the time printed in the reservation. Isn’t that a breach of contract when both parties agree to the deal and United delays the flight by 24 hours? Please explain.
United’s 1Q number are going to be jaw-droppingly awful. Like, cataclysmic bad.
This is just the start of the survival tactics United is going to need to take to ensure survival. Watch for mass layoffs, significant volume of aircraft retirements, fewer flights, market exits and service cuts.
Seriously. Brace yourselves, United flyers. We’ll look back on 2015-2019 as a ‘golden era’.
When I buy tickets United tends to be my default carrier for a variety of reasons. As long as they are close on price to the competition they are likely to get my business such as it is. Its not a lot but it is marginal revenue for them.
There is zero chance that I will be booking anything on United regardless of price as long as this policy holds. If I’m buying a ticket its because the day and time matter to me. Otherwise I’d just go standby.
Its utterly insane for anyone at this point to buy tickets on United as long as this change policy remains in affect.
Haven’t flown United in the last 15 years. Don’t plan to ever fly them. I am fortunate to live on a Delta hub. UAL is down 46% YTD so that says a bit about how confident the market is about the future there.
“It may pay to escalate or to be demanding on the phone…and I don’t recommend that lightly..”
If that fails;
It may be worthwhile making a trip to airport and dealing with a live person – its a lot harder to say no and impossible to hangup standing in front of a person- esp if you have Int’l tickets that have changed and interfere or upheaval of your travel plans. (maybe bring a friend or family member to whip out phone and record if you fail to vain ground, just stay professional and calm.
I have had GA and counter agents and supervisors, do amazing thingsover the years.
The timing sucks and it’s harsh considering how the coronavirus is affecting us. But United is a business in a volatile industry and they’re trying to be strategic and protect themselves first. However, this could backfire and force travellers to choose other carriers who are more accommodating and lenient. We have to see if the other airlines follow suit or if they will try to use United’s ill-timed move to their advantage.
You know, it just struck me what was off about the picture at the top of the post. Actually while there’s more than one thing, what first looked odd was the empty seat next to the guy in business class. Then it occurred to me that the seat was empty because there was no saver space for awards listed and United would rather fly with empty seats than have happy frequent fliers using miles to fly in business class at (sort of) reasonable rates.
I’m actually a pretty loyal UA flyer. But I happen to live somewhere where I have a lot of options. This policy will likely make me move a lot of my UA travel somewhere else. When you’re flying on business, which is 80%+ of my travel, this is a simply absurd policy. Flights get delayed for substantial periods all the time. As business folks we either cancel the flight, or hop on another one, on another airline, if we can’t be accommodated. I would think that companies in general will start re-evaluating their relationships with UA with this change.