@Wandering – The biggest deal for me is when I buy my semi-weekly flights from BWI-ORD. For the flight times I need, the current cost is $425 but quite often it drops down to $260 when the e-fares come out. Of course, sometime, the fare bumps up to over $450 and no e-fare is issued. As I’m not made of money, I appreciate the ability to book it and not have to worry if it will drop since I make the flight 3 or more times a month and pay for it personally.

What really bums me out with this new policy is those nice work paid trips for $800 that drop to $275 Of course I… um… used the vouchers for other work trips… yeah.

This sucks, I suppose, but I don’t really understand the insistence on getting cheaper fares when they drop. Buy when you think the fare is reasonable. Don’t if you don’t. Not such a crazy concept, I don’t think.

That’s assuming the customer has some sense of loyalty and would book their next flight on United. The voucher assures the customer will again fly on United. As a silver on Delta and United, there’s definitely a better chance of me booking on United if I have a voucher with them when the fares are comparable. In theory, this could actually increase United’s revenue.

All that said, it doesn’t come as a major surprise to me that they canned this program. Discovery of the refare option actually was a much greater surprise. I doubt many outside the FT community know about it. That’s where I discovered it, and everyone I have talked to about since then was surprised to hear that UA offered this. And while it was not exactly cheap, it was for me a reason to book early on UA vs. waiting for a sale.