A really simple airline ticket question

[BevL]

I may have to cancel flights that are booked for November 2 to 9 of 2007. I'm assuming I can get a credit. Would I have to FLY before the one-year anniversary or use that credit to book something before that time but fly later.

I really don't have a need for any airline tickets before January of 2009, so I'm hoping it's the latter.

Thanks in advance.

Bev

 

[Icarus]

Typically, you just need to rebook before the ticket expires.

One way around the expiration is to use the credit to book a fully refundable ticket before the expiration of the original ticket. The original credit amount will still be non-refundable, but there will generally be no charge for changing the new ticket since it's fully refundable and changeable.

-David

 

[camachinist]

Fare rules have changed a lot in the last couple years. It's hard to give accurate advice without knowing the exact fare code and looking it up on the GDS.

As an annecdote, a recent international ticket I had to cancel allowed re-ticketing up to one year from the issuance of the original ticket (not from the dates of the flights) and only provided credit towards a "normal" economy fare, which the fare desk interpreted as a "full" economy fare (on UA, that would be Y or B fare buckets)

As David noted, the "refundable ticket" strategy does work, but you have to find a fare which meets the rules and is roughly equivalent to the surrendered ticket. In my case, given that I was surrendering a ridiculously cheap K fare, I would've ended up with a ticket between SFO and LAX and most of it would've been chewed up by the change fee.

I let it go and got UA back on a couple of subsequent mistake fares

Pat