I have a situation where I need to change the name on a United Airlines ticket. My friend, who was initially planning to travel, can no longer make it, and I want to take their place. However, the ticket is under their name. Has anyone here gone through a similar experience with United Airlines? How did you manage to change the name on the ticket? Any insights or advice would be greatly appreciated!

Welcome to Fodors. The ticket number, which should not be public information, has bee deleted from your post

I don't think the rules have changed but years ago, I was not able to change the name on a non-refundable ticket. I had to cancel then rebuy the airfare and then assign them the original seat. As it was non-refundable a $200 cancel fee was deducted from the cost of the credit. I wasn't allowed to be given cash back and the credit had to be used within one year under the original person. I am assuming this would be a similar situation regardless if non-refundable or not as I wasn't allowed to just assign a new name or person to it.

You aren't really asking for 'name change' which is when there is an error on the persona' name. You are trying to transfer the ticket from one person to another and AFAIK that is not possible. Most likely your friend will have to cancel his ticket and get a refund. Then you need to book a new ticket for yourself. But your friend really needs to be calling UA to find out the options.

Its simple. No.

What janis said. Corrections such as adding "Jr." or a middle name are possible - though not usually easy - but substituting one person for another is not allowed, even if it s fully refundable fare.

If an airline allowed name changes then people would buy tickets at a low advance-purchase price and resell them later for a profit while undercutting the airline's price.

The OP has probably already figured it out since he hasn't been back to see our responses