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United’s close in booking fee sucks: Luckily THIS TRICK still works to avoid it.
You just found the PERFECT flight for a quick getaway vacay next week, you have the United miles to cover it, but WHAM! You get hit with a SUPER ANNOYING $75 close in booking fee. No Sweat My Pet – we’ve got you covered. Luckily A TRICK that has been around for quite some time, and documented by bloggers like Miles to Memories, STILL WORKS. Let’s take a look at how you can use this valuable trick to avoid United’s close in booking fee.
***UPDATE: LOOKS AS THO DEAL IS DEAD – IF YOU FIND SUCCESS PLEASE LET ME KNOW***
Ok…for argument’s sake let’s say I found the perfect flight to getaway next week. There’s no argument, I did. I’m off to England and This is it.
Gross…look at that $96.70 copay.
If we jump 3 weeks out (it has to be more than 21 days to the hour) we see the price WITHOUT the close in fee.
Much better and $75 less.
Are you seeing where this is going?
You’re going to go ahead and book the flight that is outside the close in booking fee window. AND THEN CHANGE IT.
United has a 24 hour Window whereby tickets can be cancelled and changed without penalty. B-YAH! You need to log out and then back in.
When you log back in you’ll see this. Click Change flight.
After clicking Change Flight you should see this:
Or This:
Click the flight you want to change if you have more than one in your reservations.
It will bring up your original booking. Voila.
It will show you your original flight details…just hit continue until you see the Award Avail Calendar. Now we select the date we’d like
I was allowed to change cabin, carrier, and routing as long as origin and destination remained the same
A Lufthansa option later in the calendar that I could change to.
Make sure it’s right and you’re good to go. You just saved yourself $75
And because it was under 24 hours of booking…waived change fee. Go on – do a dance. You’re a rockstar.
I highly recommend NOT TELLING your significant other how you read about this on the internet. Take the credit, pop the champagne you bought with your savings, and enjoy that look you’re getting – BACHICKAWOWOW! You’re a travel hacker baby – it’s sexy 😉
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Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed or approved by any of these entities.
Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card
Welcome Offer
Earn 60,000 bonus points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening.
Annual Fee
$95
Points Earned
Transferrable Chase Ultimate Rewards
- 5x on all travel purchased through Chase Travel℠
- 3x on dining, including eligible delivery services for takeout & dining out
- 3x on select streaming services
- 3x on online grocery purchases
- (excluding Target, Walmart and wholesale clubs)
- $50 Annual Chase Travel Hotel Credit via Chase Travel℠
- The begins immediately for new cardmembers and after your account anniversary for existing cardmembers
- 2x on all other travel
- 10% Anniversary Bonus
- Every year you keep the card, your total spend will yield a 10% points bonus. If you spend $10k in a year, you’ll get 1k bonus points
- Chase Sapphire Preferred continues to redeem at 1.25c in the Chase Travel℠ and the slew of other benefits remain in tact including Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver ( primary ), purchase protections, etc.
- Points are transferrable to 14 Ultimate Rewards partners
- Redeem in Chase Travel℠ for 1.25 cents per point
- No foreign transaction fees
- Suite of Travel and Purchase Coverage
- Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver is my favorite
- Get complimentary access to DashPass which unlocks $0 delivery fees and lower service fees for a minimum of one year when you activate by December 31, 2027.
- $95 Annual Fee
We keep an up to date spreadsheet that lists the best ever offers: You can find that spreadsheet here.
Historically 80k is a very, very good offer and hit in both 2022 and 2023. In 2021, we saw the offer hit an all time high of 100k. Who knows if that will ever come back.
Main Cast:
Cards that earn flexible points and should be used on the bulk of your purchases.
Supporting Cast:
Cards that earn fixed points in the currency of the airline/hotel and can not be transferred at attractive rates. These cards yield benefits that make it worth keeping, but not necessarily worth putting a lot of your everyday spend on.
The Chase Sapphire Preferred® is exceptional starter card and offers transferrable Ultimate Rewards, and pairs well with other Chase cards.
If you carry this card alongside Chase’s cashback cards like the Chase Freedom Flex® and Chase Freedom Unlimited® or the business versions: Ink Business Cash® , Ink Business Unlimited® you can combine the points into Preferred account and transfer into hotel and airline partners
Annual fee is quite low at $95 a year + you get a 10% anniversary bonus on points + $50 hotel credit in Chase travel.
The responses below are not provided or commissioned by the bank advertiser. Responses have not been reviewed, approved, or otherwise endorsed by the bank advertiser. It is not the bank advertiser's responsibility to ensure all posts and/or questions are answered.