Here’s something that you need to know if you ever fly United.
Consider NOT booking with United.
In this article
United will no longer refund flights with a schedule change if the change is within 25 hours of your original flight
Most airlines will let you get a full refund if your flight gets moved by 1-2 hours.
United, until now, allowed this refund for a flight schedule change over 2 hours.
As of today, that’s just *slightly* increased…. to 25 hours.
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
This means that if your schedule gets changed to flight times that completely don’t work for you, for instance if your 6am flight to a late morning meeting gets changed to 6pm, all you are entitled to is a change to other flights that may or may not work – but UA will not issue you a refund.
This is clearly a move to conserve cash for the airline as they announce massive schedule changes related to decreased travel due to coronavirus.
If you are booking new travel, you may want to consider booking…. not-United.
Does this change your plans to book with United?
Let me know here, on Twitter, or in the private MilesTalk Facebook group.
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If I cancel a late August Business Class flight from Cork Ireland to Illinois that I booked with miles, will United refund my miles? I’m afraid of getting stranded in Ireland if they were to cancel flights in and out of the country by then due to the Corona Virus. (this is just the return portion of my round trip. The trip to Ireland is booked on another airline for late May)
They will reschedule you free but not give you the miles back under their waiver. Always worth a call to try, though! Agents have leeway during this…