United Waiving Change Fee For New Ticket Purchases
United Airlines is waiving the change fee for new ticket purchases.
In announcing the move, the carrier said that: “Due to ongoing uncertainty over travel planning, we are offering a waiver for change fees on all fares (including Basic Economy, bulk and fixed fares, etc.).”
The new policy took effect from March 3 and continues through March 31 so that newly purchased tickets will be exempt from change fees.
United said that, “This change gives customers the confidence to continue with travel plans even with the uncertainty of this situation.”
The change waiver applies to:
- All fare types, including Basic Economy, bulk, fixed, etc.
- All destinations
- All points-of-sale
- All travel up to 12 months from the original ticket issue date
As for future itinerary changes, United said that, “Customers can change to a flight of equal or lesser value with no change fee. If the new fare is of lesser value, there’s no refund or residual of the fare difference. If the new ticket is a higher fare, the customer only pays the fare difference.
In terms of PNR handling, the carrier indicated that, “We are modifying the fare rules to reflect a $0 change fee. This means that, when an agency changes a 016 ticket (United ticket stock) that was issued between March 3 and 31, 2020, the GDS will read the fare rules and not charge a change fee. The change fee is automatically waived and agencies do not need to add a waiver code.”
The exception to this, United says is that, “Agencies may need to add a waiver code for bulk or fixed fares (because of the way these fares are filed) or if a fee is not automatically waived for a qualifying ticket. If this happens, use the waiver code 7JC4I in the OSI field (ARC reporting agencies) or ticket designator box (BSP reporting agencies).”
And the airline adds that, “We hope this gives our customers a much needed degree of flexibility to make travel plans.”
