Harsh new United policy change irks fliers (UPDATED) What happens when United changes your flight schedule?

An eery quiet at San Francisco International Airport at 6:30 am on Monday morning, March 9. An eery quiet at San Francisco International Airport at 6:30 am on Monday morning, March 9. Photo: Mia Iverson Photo: Mia Iverson Image 1 of / 5 Caption Close Harsh new United policy change irks fliers (UPDATED) 1 / 5 Back to Gallery

UPDATE March 12: United has amended (but not rescinded) the wretched policy described in this post, reducing its 25-hour rule to a 6-hour rule as described below:

When schedule changes occur, more than 90 percent of our customers are being automatically re-booked on a flight that leaves within two hours of their originally scheduled flight. Any customer whose travel is disrupted by more than 6 hours because of our schedule changes will be eligible for a refund. The relatively small percentage of customers who are delayed by 2 to 6 hours are eligible to cancel and retain the value of their ticket for future use. In the case of special circumstances, customers can work with the United Contact Centers to find a resolution.

Original post starts here: "This should be illegal. United is now saying if you buy a ticket but United changes it, as long as they can get you there within 25 hours of the original time it is no longer refundable. That’s disgraceful. Contract law should shoot that down," said frequent traveler S.H. in an email over the weekend.

What's he talking about? Well, over the weekend, United quietly made a big change to its refund policy in light of the cuts it has been forced to make due to plummeting demand amid coronavirus fears.

Previously, if United changed, canceled or rescheduled a flight and it was unable to move passengers to another flight to their final destination within two hours of the original flight, it would offer them a full refund.

The new policy enacted over the weekend states that United will now only offer a credit for a future flight (no refund) if it can get passengers to their final destination within 2-25 hours of the originally scheduled arrival time. It will only offer a refund if it can't find another flight within the new 25 hour window.

So what does that mean in real terms? Let's say you are holding a reservation to fly from San Francisco to New York-Newark departing at 8 a.m. next Wednesday. Then United makes a change to its schedule, eliminating that 8 a.m. flight. It switches you to an 11 p.m. redeye flight 15 hours later instead. If you choose not to take that flight, United will no longer give you your money back... it will only offer you a credit to use on a future flight within 15 months.

A United spokesperson told SFGATE: "We’ve made reductions to our international and domestic schedules and know many customers are impacted as a result. Our goal is to rebook as many people as possible without interruption and right now, more than 90 percent of impacted customers are being put on a flight that is within 2 hours of their original booking. For any rebooking that goes beyond two hours, those customers can change for free or cancel altogether, and use the value of that ticket toward future travel up to 15 months from their original ticket issue date."

United put schedule changes into effect this weekend after announcing last week it would cut its flying by up to 20 percent internationally and 11 percent domestically. Many other non-U.S. carriers have made similar cuts, but so far United is the only U.S. carrier to announce broad flight reductions.

Since it appears United imposed this onerous new refund rule as a result of coronavirus-related cuts, I asked if it would be rescinded when the crisis passes, but the spokesperson stated that she would not speculate on that.

You can read United's refund policy here.

News of United's new policy broke over the weekend, setting the travel blogosphere ablaze with comments about what appears to be an ill-timed move.

Brian Sumers, a writer for travel industry news website Skift, who broke the news on Twitter wrote: "How much does United want to conserve cash? Before Saturday, after a schedule change of more than two hours, United happily would refund you. The new policy is 25 hours."

Matthew Klint, who writes the popular Live and Let's Fly blog and tracks United closely was blunt: "That is just wrong. It is disgusting. We don’t contract for a particular aircraft or a particular seat number, but we certainly contract to travel on a particular date and time. This schedule change gives United broad power to disrupt your travel plans without recourse. United plans to apply this policy retroactively to previously booked tickets…an even shadier move."

Over at The Cranky Flier, editor Brett Snyder was a bit more conciliatory, stating, "United created a model and realized money was going to fly out the door with this schedule change. The airline then had to try to figure out how to prevent bloodshed in this very uncertain time. Is this solution as good for customers as the old policy? No, definitely not. But the reality is that it is a mostly fair solution considering the circumstances."

How will this affect your intentions to book future trips in United? Share your thoughts in the comments.

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Chris McGinnis is SFGATE's senior travel correspondent. You can reach him via email or follow him on Twitter or Facebook. Don't miss a shred of important travel news by signing up for his FREE biweekly email updates!

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