United Will Permanently Eliminate Most Change Fees

In a surprise move, United Airlines has moved to permanently eliminate change fees on most domestic tickets.

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United Airlines is permanently getting rid of most change fees for domestic travel, effective immediately. This is big news that promises to have a domino effect within the industry.

UPDATE: And in fact, the dominoes starting falling just a day later. Both American Airlines and Delta Air Lines have announced similar policies. Alaska Airlines followed with its own policy.

These are some customer-friendly changes that may also help the airlines’ bottom lines. More on that in a bit.

What Change Fees Are Gone?

United is eliminating domestic change fees in all fare classes except basic economy. There is no limit to the number of changes customers can make.

The move affects all flights within the continental United States, Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. It does not include its routes in the U.S. Pacific territories, nor does it include international flights. If you’re flying to Canada, for example, your ticket may still be subject to change fees.

For customers who need to cancel their flight, but don’t yet have new travel dates, no worries. United will issue a flight credit good for up to one year from the date the ticket was issued originally.

If you’ve ever had to change plans and pay United’s $200 domestic change fee, you know how irksome it could be. And the fee would apply to each ticket in the reservation. It would cost $800 for a family of four to change flights. Zero is a much better price.

CEO Scott Kirby says that when customers were asked what United could do to improve, their top request was to get rid of change fees.

“Following previous tough times, airlines made difficult decisions to survive, sometimes at the expense of customer service. United Airlines won’t be following that same playbook as we come out of this crisis. Instead, we’re taking a completely different approach – and looking at new ways to serve our customers better.”

In announcing the news, the airline also said it would continue to waive all change fees, including Basic Economy and international, through December 31, 2020.

United Will Keep the Difference

While this is welcome news, it isn’t quite perfect. United plans to pocket the difference if your new ticket costs less than the original.

In fact, this makes sense. It will keep customers from potentially booking at one price, and then later rebooking the same or different flights should the price drop.

So if the new fare is more than $200 lower, you won’t come out ahead. Plan wisely when rebooking; the airline will not give you a voucher if your new fare is lower.

You will, of course, pay the difference if the new fare is higher.

Award Travel Redeposit Fees

United is also eliminating award redeposit fees for MileagePlus members who cancel their award tickets canceled at least 30 days prior to departure. The airline had been charging up to $125 to cancel award tickets and redeposit the miles, depending on MileagePlus status.

Fee-Free Standby Starts January 1st

Finally, United will soon allow customers to standby for same-day flights at no additional charge. The rules will be straightforward:

• Customers must fly between the same origin/destination airports.
• In order to fly standby, passengers must get on the list at least 30 minutes prior to the flight, 60 minutes before international departures.
• Customers can place themselves on the standby list on the United app.

The same-day standby rules will apply to all tickets and all destinations, domestic and international, effective January 1, 2021.

Also starting January 1st, United will allow all of its MileagePlus Premier members to confirm same-day flight changes, not just Premier Gold and higher. MileagePlus Premier Silver members can also take advantage of this benefit and change their flights, provided a seat in the same fare class is available. The airline will waive the normal $75 fee.

What To Make of the Changes

These are some customer-friendly changes, and it hopefully signals a new approach for United Airlines. The airline has faced a myriad of customer service issues lately, including its lack of interest in blocking middle seats during the coronavirus pandemic.

So this change should make customers happy. But I seriously doubt United is doing this without first having done the math for their bottom line.

Fewer Basic Economy Ticket Sales

Remember, United is eliminating change fees on all tickets except Basic Economy fares. These highly restrictive fares are nonrefundable and non-changeable, and that won’t change.

But most passengers buying a Basic Economy seat can deal with the restrictions: no free seat selection, limits on carry-on bags, boarding in the last group, etc.

The main difference between Basic Economy and standard economy fares is the ticket flexibility, or lack thereof. Basic Economy tickets have no flexibility at all. Until now, standard economy tickets offered flexibility with an expensive $200 change fee attached. I certainly wasn’t going to pay $200 to change flights unless I absolutely had to. Meaning standard economy didn’t really seem any more flexible than Basic Economy tickets.

Fast forward to now. United now gives you the option to book a standard economy ticket with full flexibility to make changes. Or for about $30 less in each direction, you can buy a Basic Economy ticket and have no flexibility at all. United is betting this changes the math for its customers, and will encourage more of them to buy standard economy. If enough of them spend the extra money, United will come out ahead.

Final Thoughts

United Airlines is eliminating most change fees on domestic flights; and even though it seems like good business, I’m stunned. I would have expected a smaller airline like Alaska to do something like this — not any of the Big 3 and especially not United.

United and other carriers will be watching this development closely. And I would also expect more of them to follow United’s lead.

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