formergr

Thanks for posting this. Does anyone know if it extends to a critically ill/injured family member? I thought I'd heard that, but not sure what United's policy is. as my entire family lives overseas, I'm always worried about something like this...

dimramon

Last year, I needed a compassion (Q) fare (DEN-BRU) to go see my father who was critically ill. The salesrep told me that they do not give out international compassion fares. This was before I knew FT, and I just hung up and called a different airline. I ended up flying British.
I'd be interested to know if the res agent was right.

channa

FYI - I'm not sure he played this part right. CO was offering free changes and change fee waivers. And while I'm sure he had a lot on his mind, if he waited for his flight to cancel, and it did, he would have been eligible for an invol refund.

terrysalmi

Glad you were able to make it out alright, and sorry for your loss.

GoingAway

This is consistent with what I was told about the fares, the key thing was the ability to make changes at any time to the ticket in my conversation with UA CSRs. I ended up buying one-ways due to the travel requirements I had and because I was on the East Coast, it was actually pretty reasonable, esp for last minute purchases. I was on UA for only one or two of the segments I flew, but got to experience Independence, Song and JetBlue (definitely the best of the group).

I had a great CSR Supervisor during when I was trying to figure out if I was just throwing away a ticket I had bought a while ago for a quick weekend away, that wasn't going to be used due to timing and health of my relative. The ticket value was just over $100, so if I was going to be charged a change fee, it was just a lost cause. Had to go to a Supervisor (the rep had no idea what I was asking) but this HNL based CSR was just super. The CSR worked with me on different ways to handle it until we agreed that just moving the dates and keeping the route was the best approach, with no change fee, just the fare difference. ^ The note to the 1K line had a custom response, not a canned one thanking me for the input for this valued rep. :-:

IceTrojan

Ok, I'm sure everyone is thinking this, so I'll take the plunge and ask...

Does a bereavement fare earn miles? I would guess yes... but who knows?

And yes, thank you for posting this info. When it comes to family, I'd be willing to jump ship and fly UA if they indeed have the most flexible policy for bereavement fares. (But of course, I'd make sure to make an MR on the way back, to cheer myself up )

GoingAway

Yes, they earn miles. It's a regular ticket, with some flexibility built in.

worldtrav

This has been my experience with UA on bereavement fares with the exception that I believe the Q bucket has to be available for them to sell the QRCARE fare.

couscous

Thanks for posting this information, very useful. So what is the deal for international ? still confused...

ms_go

I haven't spoken to my brother since he returned from evacuating, so I probably haven't heard the end of the ticket story with CO. At one point, it looked like he would get the credit, but I will update this when I know more. I don't believe his flight was cancelled (it was a day or two before the storm hit, but after evacuations started), so that is probably why.

Yes, I received miles - 100% EQM/125% RDM in my case.

Superguy

I agree that UA is pretty good to work with on the compassion fares.

When my grandmother died a few years ago, UA just wanted the information to contact the funeral home to verify the event. Whether they called or not, I don't know. The understanding was that if they couldn't verify it, they'd then charge the difference to the full Y fare. Everything went smooth.

My aunt and uncle used AA, on the other hand, and they had to cough up about 12K for them and their kids to fly in, then AA would refund the difference when they had a copy of the death certificate.

I won't even go into how bad NW treated me and my sister on a bereavement fare once.

nwhsd

Yes, the same policy will apply for those situations, the main difference is that you will be required to provide Hospital name, address, attending physician name, and phone number.

I had to utlize this fare earlier in the year. I also had to purchase tix for relatives flying PDX-LAN with 8 hours notice UAL.com price was $950+, the QRCARE fare was $545. All changeable with no fee. That was a very unexpected discovery and another compelling factor to continue to make United my carrier of choice, I was very grateful.

WindFlyer

Thank you ms_go for the nice recap of UA's bereavement fares. Ms. WindFlyer had to use one earlier this summer, and it was nearly exactly as you note, with the following exception (verified by the RR agent I spoke with):
As nwhsd noted, the same provisions apply to the critically ill/emergency fares... (that was going to be the initial fare Ms. WindFlyer was going to book...).

WindFlyer

I agree.

I've put in a request that it be added to the FAQ sticky.

ozweepay

A little OT, but a quick story:

I was in SMF last year, on a DEN-LGA-ORD-SMF-DEN circle trip. I was visiting my father because he wasn't feeling well and in the hospital.

Sadly, he died during my visit, and I completely neglected to call UA to cancel my SMF-DEN return because I was busy making funeral arrangements. When I finally did call UA to rebook my flight out, they did it without any change fee.

They also canceled my DEN-ZRH trip booked for the following week with a full refund, no penalties.

They did all this without a death cert, note from funeral home, or any other documentation.

Another reason that I stick with UA.