Update: DoT has issued an enforcement notice that airlines must provide a refund.
In case you’ve missed the saga of United making extremely negative changes to it’s schedule change policy here’s a quick run down:
- On March 8th United made it so that a schedule change of 25 hours was required for a refund. Previously 2 hours was required. United also decided it was a good idea to apply this to existing tickets
- Â United then said that schedule changes of 2-25 hours would result in a travel credit
- United then said it would be determining who was eligible for a refund on a ‘case by case basis’.
- United then said that flights changed by more than 6 hours would receive a credit and flights changed by 2 – 6 hours would receive a travel credit
Don’t worry though, because now United has issued a statement to @crankyflier.
What the hell – @united is changing its sked chg policy AGAIN for intl. If you have a 6+ hour chg, you will get a credit good for 1 year from date of purchase. If you don’t use it, THEN you can get your money back. Congrats, you’ve given the airline a no-interest loan. pic.twitter.com/TtZgRv106g
— Brett Snyder (@crankyflier) March 15, 2020
So now if your flight is changed by more than 6 hours, you receive a travel credit. If you don’t use the credit after a year then you’ll be refunded. I understand that United is facing massive losses due to corona virus, but so are individuals and it’s not individual flyers responsibility to provide United will interest free loans due to United changing the rules after a ticket has been purchased.
