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Disclaimer: I use the word “upgrade” a few times in the post. I am not referring to buying a cash ticket in economy and trying to use miles or cash to get it into business class. I am referring to using miles to change an award from economy to business. The first type of upgrade is almost universally a bad deal. The second type is a fine deal.
United has a litany of award fees. Booking by phone is $25. Cancelling is $150. Changing the origin, destination, award, type, cabin, or anything within 21 days of departure is $75.
But I’ve had some pretty good luck changing United awards without incurring the stated fees. I wrote about the way I figured out to Save $100 or More on Cancelling United Awards.
And I once changed an award from Europe to the US without incurring a $75 change fee or having the 20,000 extra miles for my upgrade from economy to business class deducted from my account. (That was a fluke caused by the fact that fees seem to be manually applied by agents over the phone.)
I’ve figured out another way to save up to $75 per ticket in certain circumstances.
I stumbled upon a customer friendly glitch at united.com. You can change the cabin of your award at any time for no fee as long as the flights remain the same.
This contradicts United’s stated change rules, and it can save you hundreds of dollars.
It’s pretty clear that changing the cabin of an award should run $75 for non-Premiers or $50 for me as a Premier Silver.
But that hasn’t been my experience.
A few months ago I booked Rookie Alli a one way ticket from Buenos Aires to Washington DC for 30,000 United miles and $77. A few weeks ago, I decided to upgrade her to a flat bed for the 20,000 mile difference between economy and business class for her birthday–no jewelry from me.
I expected to be dinged with a $50 change fee.
I knew there were two ways to get her to DC–through Newark and Houston. I didn’t care which way she got there as long as I could find a BusinessFirst bed for her.
Her original booking was through Newark.
I know, from booking hundreds of awards, that United tends to release a lot of Saver award space in the last few weeks (and the last few days) if a flight looks like it won’t be full. This is especially true of business and first class seats. Check out the Buenos Aires to Newark direct flight for the next two months.
Of the ten days with business class space in the next two months, six are in the next two weeks, and three are in the next five days.
I logged into my United account two weeks before her scheduled flight and performed an award search. I found that I could switch her existing economy reservation to the same flights, but in business class, for 20,000 miles and $0.
Not all flights were free to change though. Routing through Houston would cost 20,000 miles and $50, the standard change fee for a Premier Silver.
I quickly selected the Newark flight, and the confirmation screen listed the change fee as $0.00.
The Play
I often recommend booking economy flights to people with the hope that business or first class space will become available later.
This news means you should book the exact flights that are likely to open up business class space. You can guess that by searching award space for this week on the routes you’re considering to see which routes currently have a lot of last second award space.
Past performance doesn’t guarantee future results, but it’s sometimes the best thing you can do to predict. Whichever route seems to be a gold mine of last minute premium space would be the best to book now to avoid change fees later.
Recap
There is no change fee being levied on united.com to upgrade awards to a higher cabin of service as long as the flights are changed.
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I noticed the same thing yesterday and thought it was a fluke. However, United.com crashed when I tried to change it and had to call customer service and they do charge the fee.
The last sentence is incorrect. It should say “There is no change fee being levied on united.com to upgrade awards to a higher cabin of service as long as the flights are not changed.”
I’ve also been able to convince agents on the phone not to charge the fee for cabin changes or carrier changes when keeping origin and destination same. But YMMV may vary on that one and I am particularly diplomatic!
Recently I changed my reward booking for 5 tickets the morning before the flight to a different flight on the same day (international) and was only charged $50/tix rather than the expected $75. I’m not premier silver. Fluke? Error? I do have the Chase United Explorer card but I don’t think that makes a difference.
Applies to UA partners too?
I’ve found that overseas United offices will usually let me get away with a free change when I shouldn’t get one. On a non-competitive change (i.e. LH F opening up, I’m going to pay the fee and not wait around for someone to snatch it up)–when I think I have a few minutes–I’ll try a few offices around the world and usually one will give me the change for free. I’ve had particularly good luck with the UK office.
So this would be useful for booking a LH flight with the hopes that a first class seat opens up within 15 days of departure…
Can it be the same flight on another day?
I suppose then you would get the date change fees.
Would this work of Luthansa operated flights also?
Hi Scott,
I’d be interested in hearing why you think buying a cash ticket in economy and trying to use miles or cash to get it into business class is “almost universally a bad deal.”
I travel a lot for business and due to status with United I get upgraded (for free) frequently when I buy a cash ticket. Sometimes when I have a longer-haul flight and I really want to make sure I am sitting in business, I will buy a cash ticket and use award miles to upgrade to business. The reason I do this, as opposed to simply using award miles for the whole purchase, is that I need the miles to maintain my elite status which pays off on the great many shorter haul flights that I receive a complimentary upgrade on. Also, as the cash ticket is usually for business (I am self employed) I can deduct the cost of the ticket as a business expense against my taxes.
What am I missing?
I’ve called before and had them upgrade my award ticket. I contested the fee, and the rep was happy to waive it. I’m guessing you can do this over the phone too.
Clearly YMMV, but I “upgraded” one over the phone on Sunday for a flight later that day. Same flights, but no fee was assessed on that either. I at no point asked them to waive the fee too.
Didn’t see if this was answered yet, but does this work on partners? Also, does it work if I book regular economy but saver business opens up? Thank you!
As I understand the trick, there is no change fee if you change cabins but not flights online. So this should work changing from business to first. I don’t know if it works with partners. Hopefully. I have not seen united.com distinguish United and partners in the past.
My flight from FCO->FRA ->DFW is in one month. I was able to change my cabin from economy to business class on Lufthansa through United.com. Even though I could see the open biz class seats on regular search (not logged in), I did need the extra 20K miles in my account in order to see the biz class option on the “change” screen. There was no fee to make this upgrade. I did have to pay a minimal tax difference though.
Thanks for the report.
FYI, AA has the same policy, even on partners. Upgrading from Business to First on Cathay had no fees.
It appears that when making changes to a ticket, as long as the cities stay the same, there is no fee for the change. I just changed a roundtrip PHL-ORD in December to next September with no change fee.
Online?