The United Airlines policy will cover you and refund you for price drop reasons, but not for other reasons e.g., if your company needs to cancel your vacation, for example. United Airlines tickets — even non-refundable tickets — get refunded all the time due to price drop reasons. You can get refunds for even your non-refundable tickets. United Airlines issues price drop refunds regularly.
United Airlines Price Drop Refund Model
Most customers misunderstand what non-refundable means in the airline industry. Think of “non-refundable” as “refundable, but only for a good reason.” The difference with the refundable ticket is that you can get a refund for no reason at all.
But all must be within the fare rules for the tickets you purchased, so you aren’t demanding any kind of special treatment or exception to the rules.
What Makes United Airlines Decide If the Ticket Should Be Refundable or Not
United Airlines and most airlines exist to pinch every single cent out of their passengers.
There are not enough customers who will pay full fare, so airlines e.g., United Airlines build a pricing mechanism to sell seats to everyone else at a lower price.
It does so by reducing the cancellation benefit of the booking terms.
But the clever customer can simply insure away the cancellation risk.
Just do not buy the airline insurance – it is not recommended if you might need to cancel.
Price Drop Refund Amount: Here Is an Example:
The passenger is booking 6 months ahead.
Let’s assume that the passenger is a loyal United Airlines customer, so goes straight to their site.
He is a little nervous about needing to cancel the trip so looks for a Refundable Ticket.
That’s a $5,000 ticket. In Coach.
Except it is a code-share flight, and United Airways is going to be running the flight.
So, that loyal passenger wouldn’t expect to see a price drop if they checked the same flight, at the same time (this was run simultaneously from different browsers) – which means, that would be horrible if United Airlines was trying to rob a loyal customer like that.
United Airlines wanted $900 less to book that Refundable ticket.
So, United Airlines wanted $900 more for the privilege of booking the United Airlines flight through the United Airlines website.
What the passenger should do, if they want a price drop refund, is buy a Non-Refundable ticket, then insure it with Travel Insurance that includes Cancel for Work Reason (100% refund) and Cancel for Any Other Reason e.g. price drop (75% refund).
So far we have gone from $5,000 to $900 for the same seat.
In all probability, it is not going to cover what you need
It’s therefore advisable to take a look at a Travel Insurance Marketplace, like AardvarkCompare.com, and shop around. It will take you less than 2 minutes to get a completely anonymous quote, and let you compare and contrast what United Airlines (or any other airline/travel site ) is offering you.
United Airlines Price Drop Reasons Policy
The United Airlines policy will cover you for price drop reasons, but not for other reasons e.g. if your company needs to cancel your vacation.
So, go to a Travel Insurance Marketplace, drop in your information, and get a real quote from multiple Travel Insurance Carriers, that includes some helpful benefits eg price drop refunds.
About $90 for a decent policy.
So, for around $950 a customer is getting pretty much the same price drop refund benefits, in the same seat that the airline wanted $5,000.
Conclusion
In conclusion, there are chances that United Airlines has all those robust benefits that include refunds to customers to cover you in case of a price drop, or for any other valid reason.
Price drop refund is in their business model eg of selling you an $800 seat for $5,000 – hence the point in them providing that sort of coverage
Frequently Asked Questions
- Question 1: Can you ever actually manage to get a refund from United Airlines?
Yes, you can obtain refunds of both miles and cash from United Airlines.
All are quick and relatively painless.
But all must be within the fare rules for the tickets you purchased, so you aren’t demanding any kind of special treatment or exception to the rules.
- What is the reason behind non-refundable United Airlines tickets?
It is part of an airline’s strategy to offer tickets at different price points for different types of customers, but it has to be stated explicitly that airlines produce a perishable product. Once the aircraft closes the cabin door and backs out of the gate, the seat that was offered is gone. It can no longer be sold. Therefore, an airline will get as creative as possible to ensure every available seat is sold.
