On March 8th United made a no notice change to it’s refund policy on schedule changes. Previously if there was a schedule change of more than two hours you could get refunded, that was changed to needing to be more than 25 hours. To make matters worse United decided it was a good idea to retroactively apply this to tickets already booked. After backlash United unofficially changed the policy to allow for a travel credit for changes of 2 to 25 hours (although this was never actually added to the terms). After even more backlash United is telling Brian Summers (who first broke this story) that it will be replacing it with a policy that allows them to make case by case decisions.
Hello. @united tells me it will change this refund policy, which I first reported on Saturday. It is “replacing it with a policy that will allow us to make case-by-case decisions to better serve our customers during these uncertain times,” it said. More details Wednesday. https://t.co/YGjD24z48p
— Brian Sumers (@BrianSumers) March 11, 2020
Case by case decisions is code word for we want to offer the original refund policy to as few people as possible, but we also don’t want to deal with the backlash of our customers being angry. United I’ll give you a piece of advice for free, this new case by case policy isn’t going to fly with consumers either and you’ve shown again that you have an inability to understand why consumers are angry when you make a mistake. An appropriate response would have been to acknowledge that you made a mistake, state that you’ve listened to customers concerns and are now fixing the issue (in this case offering refunds for schedule changes of more than two hours for all customers that booked with that policy in place).
I flew United last week. Lax to Hnl. 30%occupied.
So happy that I switched away from United last year.
Rename this airline to Untied.
Best response made by another. This whole thing just shows UA is being run by IDIOTS. They just cost themselves all kinds of money and did not save squat.
I mean a 25 hour policy is crazy. That could be a whole day earlier or later. What about work, lodging, car rentals, child care. That is delivering something completely different than what was purchased and should be illegal.
Wouldn’t expect any less from the airline that launches your skull into an armrest.
I never trusted United after they took away free carry on to basic economy…they are basically spirit at this point.
I’m no fan but didn’t all the carriers do that?
This whole change and change again shows they’re run by idiots.
DL and AA allow carry ons with BE
Delta always allowed a carry on for basic economy. American allows it now after initially following the United model. I live in Chicago so United and American are the way to go if you want to fly direct…but Delta’s service is so much better that I put up with higher fares and connecting flights just so I don’t have to put up with the idiots at United.
Only United from what I know of. American Airlines, Delta, Southwest (allows 2 free bags on top of carry-on). Pretty sure they are the only one, but might be some out there that did the same.
Agreed – I’ll do my best to not fly them.
Worse than spirit; they don’t allow you to get a boarding pass online in basic economy and they actually measure your bags. I’ve had plenty of bags on spirit that wouldn’t fit, but they don’t measure (Even large) backpacks on spirit. United measures small backpacks.
Well considering my last flight with United from ORD last Friday night to LEX had the last six rows behind me completely empty to the tail, I don’t think it’s ridiculous!
You would think after seeing the cruiselines and other airlines offer change policies that are fair to their customers, United would realize the error of their ways. But this is United we’re talking about here.
Personally, United is the most convenient and reliable for me but these proposed changes seem to over the top. Wasn’t there a post the other day that showed United having the more generous of the airlines effort for change fees during this virus issue? Guess some changes might be good but not outweigh the bad.
ETA, this one https://www.doctorofcredit.com/united-waiving-change-fees-on-bookings-3-3-3-31-includes-award-bookings/
Let the free market sort this out.