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United Airlines Makes It Easier for You to Cash in on Overbooked Flights – Here’s What You Need to Know

  • Meghan Hunter

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    United Airlines is now making it a lot easier for passengers to voluntarily give up their seat when a flight ends up overbooked.  This is especially good news for those of y’all (myself included) that are almost always willing to move to a later flight for the promise of a flight voucher.

    Now, travelers on some routes who are willing to volunteer their seat can utilize United’s app or website to find and confirm new flights and chose their compensation options.  And on certain flights, passengers will be able to volunteer for a different flight and select their compensation as early as 24 hours before departure.

    I’m hopeful this improvement will make the process of dealing with an overbooked flight a little less painful.  Here’s more about this new option from United Airlines and if you want to stay on top of the latest travel news and tips, subscribe to our newsletter.

    Relax!  On Select United Airlines Flights, You’ll Now Have the Option of Rebooking Yourself (and Selecting Your Compensation!) Before Even Leaving for the Airport!

    United Airlines Improves Process to Deal With Overbooked Flights

    This new technology is currently available to passengers flying through 230 select airports.  And the idea is it will reduce the number of involuntary denied boardings – when a confirmed passenger is forced off their flight.

    With new improvements to United Airlines’ app and website, anyone willing to volunteer their seat on an overbooked flight can now do so online.  And in some cases, before ever leaving for the airport!  There’s even the option to submit a bid for compensation if a flight isn’t offering confirmed compensation at the time of check-in.

    Allowing passengers the opportunity to rebook themselves and select their own compensation should reduce the inconveniences associated with overbooked flights for both passengers and the airline.  But the option to bid for compensation might actually drive the amount of compensation down.  This, of course, would be great for United Airlines, but not so great for passengers.

    What do you think about United Airlines’ new process for handling overbooked flights?  If you’ve had experience rebooking yourself and requesting compensation online, I’d love to hear about it in the comments!

    Ready to save on even more your United Airlines flights?  Then sign-up for the United℠ Explorer Card.

    Editorial Note: We're the Million Mile Secrets team. And we're proud of our content, opinions and analysis, and of our reader's comments. These haven’t been reviewed, approved or endorsed by any of the airlines, hotels, or credit card issuers which we often write about. And that’s just how we like it! :)