Changing flights after airline schedule change.

[winterman]

I am flying to MCO in April with DD, DSiL and DGS (2 1/2). We made the reservations way back in May. This week United changed some flight times. We went from a 2 1/2 hour connection in Newark to 39 minutes! I found a better connection and when I call United they were able to switch us, no charge. We now have a 2 hour 43 minute connection, which is just fine. (We'll gate check a stroller and DGS will be in a carseat.)

There were also changes on the northbound fights which changed our connection time from 2 hours 40 minutes to 3 hours 27 minutes. We can live with that and any alternative flights have no remaining 'free' seats.

So, I have 2 questions. To qualify for a free change in flight is there a certain time limit for the connection? I know if your connection gets too low, you can change, although I don't know what the minimum is. But what if it goes in the other direction? In our case it got 47 minutes longer. Also, what happens if the flight you want to change to, has no more 'free' seats but does have economy plus seats?

I do have a United credit card but no other special status with United.

 

[Brian Noble]

It's not so much the connection time, but the change in departure/arrival time---if those move by "enough", they will usually waive the change fee. Your return changed by less than an hour, so that might (or might not) be enough of a change to trigger the fee waiver.

I don't know how United handles premium seating, so can't answer that part.

 

[sam_gordon]

I think with Delta, the rule is an hour... if they change your departure time or your arrival time by more than an hour (or obviously make a tight connection), you can call and request a change.

If there's another flight you'd rather take to get home, go ahead and call. The worst they can say is "it will cost you", in which case you decline the change.

 

[seashoreCM]

Hand pick alternate flights (including non-stops and connections through different cities) that you would like before telephoning. Don't consider flights that look obviously sold out; no selectable seats in the seat chart do not stand for sold out.

It does not matter if there are "free" or "super saver" or "economy plus" seats available, all there have to be are "any" seats in the same section of the plane. (You might not see selectable seats in the seating chart although they may dig into the last-minute-set-aside seats to let you make selections now.)

Also pressure them (asking for a supervisor if necessary) if they make the connection time too short for your liking, even if the connection time is "legal."

After all, they instigated the change, they shouldn't force you to run for your next plane as a consequence.

 

[bumbershoot]

Also pressure them (asking for a supervisor if necessary) if they make the connection time too short for your liking, even if the connection time is "legal."

Offtopic! Sort of.

I was thinking of you and all the other Transportation people who use the word "legal" like that, as we sweated bullets wondering if we would make our connection late last night.

I will NEVER book the 6:13pm MCO-SEA flight again; landing in SFO at 9:23 with the next flight at 10:35. Out of SFO. no no no. Mechanical issue then air traffic issue then weather issue then something else (the flight attendants said there was no weather, that it was ALL mechanical, and since they were on the plane I'm going with their take on the situation). The FAs begged people to let those of us with tight connections get off first, but too many people think "my flight boards in an hour, that's really tight!" when there were those of us on the flight whose next plane was boarding *as we taxied to the gate"...grr.

Anyway, not all "legal" connections are doable under normal circumstances (what a shock that there was fog at SFO!), no matter what they think. Add in something else and you are running to the next plane or booking a hotel for the night (that you'll pay for because they claim "weather")....

ETA: I should mention that we made it but it wasn't fun or pretty. And we have a 10 year old who carries his own stuff, no babies or toddlers or anything like that. Our bags even made it! But we came into gate 81 and our next flight was at 88, so apart from having to break through the scrum of people boarding at gate 86, it was easy for us to get to the gate and close for the bag handlers.

 

[sam_gordon]

Hand pick alternate flights (including non-stops and connections through different cities) that you would like before telephoning. Don't consider flights that look obviously sold out; no selectable seats in the seat chart do not stand for sold out.

It does not matter if there are "free" or "super saver" or "economy plus" seats available, all there have to be are "any" seats in the same section of the plane. (You might not see selectable seats in the seating chart although they may dig into the last-minute-set-aside seats to let you make selections now.)

Also pressure them (asking for a supervisor if necessary) if they make the connection time too short for your liking, even if the connection time is "legal."

After all, they instigated the change, they shouldn't force you to run for your next plane as a consequence.

I'm sure you noticed the OP already took care of the flight with the short connection time and was curious about changing the flight with the "long" connection time.

 

[dis_guy]

I've found United to be pretty easy to work with when they have schedule changes. We had a 0900 flight dropped from the schedule and were put on the earlier 0630 one. The reason for the schedule change was that they had added a 2355 flight instead. I called and got moved to the *previous* nights overnight flight even though, technically, I shouldn't have been able to book on a date different from the original ticket. The net result is we were at WDW at 1030 instead of 1900. In fact, we have the same 0900 flight booked for our November trip. I'm kinda hoping they cancel it again!

 

[lost*in*cyberspace]

......
So, I have 2 questions. To qualify for a free change in flight is there a certain time limit for the connection? I know if your connection gets too low, you can change, although I don't know what the minimum is. But what if it goes in the other direction? In our case it got 47 minutes longer. Also, what happens if the flight you want to change to, has no more 'free' seats but does have economy plus seats?

I do have a United credit card but no other special status with United.

There's no official flight time change for UA letting you change your flight for free when they change flight times. I would guess any change over an hour or one which caused you to miss a connection is a safe bet for a free change.

UA lets their lower level elite FF members chose Economy Plus seats for free at 24 hours before the flight, so many regular economy seats will open up then. Keep checking. There are many, many elites these days on UA, so it's likely you will get economy seats. If economy is completely full, then some non-elites and those who didn't pay will be moved into E+ seats for free, but don't count on this.

 

[winterman]

Thank you all for your thoughts and info. I think I will probably stick with what we have for our return flights. Not being able to select 3 seats together immediately on booking is a real concern. I can sit anywhere but DGS and his parents really should be together. Finding possible alternative flights is complicated by our desire to use RAC and to not have to board DME Before 6:00 am as well as not traveling after the little one's bedtime. Currently, we leave MCO at 9:32 am and arrive in PWM at 4:49 pm. We will deal with 3 hours 27 minutes in Newark.

 

[lost*in*cyberspace]

Thank you all for your thoughts and info. I think I will probably stick with what we have for our return flights. Not being able to select 3 seats together immediately on booking is a real concern. I can sit anywhere but DGS and his parents really should be together. Finding possible alternative flights is complicated by our desire to use RAC and to not have to board DME Before 6:00 am as well as not traveling after the little one's bedtime. Currently, we leave MCO at 9:32 am and arrive in PWM at 4:49 pm. We will deal with 3 hours 27 minutes in Newark.

Spending 3 1/2 hours at EWR will be pretty boring, especially with a little kid. I would not be choosing that flight, unless it was the only option.

Keep checking the seat map; it changes all the time.