My wife and I have an upcoming vacation trip to Istanbul and Dublin booked with United miles and the routing goes like this:
IAH – IST (stopover) – Dublin (Destination) – BOS – IAH
I have never been to Turkey and was looking forward to Istanbul as well as trying out Turkish Airlines Business Class. However, recent politicial turmoil in Istanbul in Taksim Square made us question whether we should be going there or not.
Since the tickets were issued using United miles, it would have cost $75 per person (for non-elites) to change the origin or destination which was also footnoted to say:
Fee will be charged for any change to cabin, award type, carrier, date or time.
So, I called United to ask if they will waive the change fee because we may not want to go to Istanbul if the unrest there continued. The first representative was nice and directed me to this “Important Notices” page on United. She told me that since there was no news of this unrest in Turkey on this page, she could not waive the change fee. I thanked her and hung up.
I called back a couple of days later and spoke with a different representative. He was actually very nice on the phone as well. I wasn’t surprised to find out that he didn’t even know there was unrest in Istabul. However, I quickly explained to him what was going on. He decided to talk to a United manager, and came back with, “Sir, we understand your concern and are willing to waive the change fee for one change to your itinerary. I have documented this in your account, so you can change your Houston – Istanbul segment whenever you want.” Score!
I was not expecting that, but it was a nice surprise. Not only did they agree to waive the change fee, he told me that I could change the ticket whenever I wanted, which gave me a little more freedom to find another destination, award ticket availability, etc. instead of changing the ticket on the spot.
Since that conversation, the turmoil in Istanbul has actually quieted down, so it’s likely that we won’t make any changes and still go to Istanbul. However, it’s still nice to know that I can change my flight up to the last minute to any other destination.
Just 2 days ago, it seems that United has increased award change fees for non-elite members. (HT: Hack my trip). This $75 fee to change the destination has increased to $100 for non elite members. Thank you again United!
Have you ever gotten an award change fee waived for any reason?