Anyway around the penalty fees for cahnging a flighT?

[Luv2Roam]

I bought my tickets from United and then found out days later that WDW is having a big pin event the day I leave. Wah!
I called United. I would be penalized $100 a ticket to change for a flight for June 2, from the 1st. (choke, choke)
Needless to say, I passed. But are there tips or tricks to get around this?

 

[DolphinBound]

I tried to get around this with US Airways, but the gentleman was kind but firm. No way...We added 3 nights to our stay, so we needed to change our return flight, and they just would not budge on the penalty...unbelievable, especially since it had only been 2 days after we originally booked our airfare and several months before our flight...maybe someone else has had better luck though.

 

[ducklite]

You have three options.

1. Hope the flight times change significantly enough that you have a valid case for changing, or the flight you have booked is cancelled, in which case they would probably allow you to change the day one day earlier.

2. Show up at the airport VERY early and try to get on to an earlier flight. I've done this several times, and all but once been accomodated on a stand-by basis.

3. Pay the change fee.

Anne

 

[josierac]

Anne,
option 2 won't work as they want to leave a day later than their schedule flight. They will be counted as a no show and cancel their return ticket

 

[Looking Glass]

Ran into the same problem ourselves. Checked quite a few places and found the only way to change is to be charged the fee. The other problem we ran into was the price the air tickets for the day we wanted to return were much higher. We would have to pay an extra 700$ + room cost and park fees to stay the extra two days.