NewYorker545

I tried searching but I couldn't find any similar previous threads.

I had a R/T E- reservation booked and paid for on united.com.

I decided to upgrade to UnitedFirst on the outbound segment but kept the E- on the return segment. Later on in the day, I went back and checked the reservation and saw an upgrade price for the return segment from E- to UF for $64.00. I went ahead and clicked through on it and purchased after seeing the details of the purchase and fees totaled $64.00.

On the confirmation page, I printed out the upgrade summary that begins with "Thank you for choosing United Airlines." It shows the upgrade price of $64.00.

I then went to view the reservation to see if the upgrade shows up as UF. It did, so I then wanted to print the receipt. The receipt shows my credit card being charged for $329.00 for the upgrade!

I called online support and they walked through the history of the transaction and said they did not see the $64.00 upgrade price, only the$329.00 price. I even checked my credit card website to see what was charged. It showed as $64.00 with a "pending" status. After a few days, this $64.00 pending charge was gone, replaced by a charge of $329.00 with a status of "Sale."

I spoke with United online support again, and they asked that I fill out the feedback form online and upload the PDF of my transaction (glad I saved it!).

They said it will need to be researched and a response will take about 2 weeks. My concern is that the online support didn't see the transaction history when I first had them check. I am not hopeful that after almost 3 weeks go by they can resolve this correctly.

This was the shortened version! The full story was that the uprade of the first segment was not problem-free either. I decided to upgrade the first segment for $249.00, leaving the return segment alone. After clicking "purchase" the website returned an error and stated that I should call customer service. I tried this 2 more times and had the same error message. I finally called online support, and they were able to see the $249.00 upgrade price in the web history and resolved the issue. My credit card had three $249.00 "pending" charges in my transaction history, but after a week, one $249.00 went through as a "Sale" while the other two stayed as "Pending" along with the erroneous $329.00. The $329 went through as stated above and the two $249 pendings disappeared, along with the $64.00 pending.

Has anyone encountered such a weird United.com transaction, where I agreed and clicked on one amount, and then the charge was for a different (and much higher) amount? What are the chances that online support will resolve this correctly? Any thing I should be doing before my 5/17/14 flight?

mherdeg

There have been reports of almost exactly the same scenario once or twice in the past few months.

In at least one case, the resident United employee / forum lurker UA Insider stepped in and was able to help the original poster get the quoted price.

I don't have links right now.

Do follow up here — if united.com promised you something, even if a bit offbeat, and you have screenshots of their offer, and you're not some kind of crook, they will generally honor it. (I've added that "not a crook" clause because united.com has horrible session-state management issues like you might remember from when we saw folks abuse it to try to book $0 award flights … but that didn't work / shouldn't have worked.)

mduell

Yes, there are other reports of upgrade charge shenanigans. Smart of you to save the confirmation page.

Since you've notified UA of the discrepancy and they've done nothing to resolve it, dispute the charge with your CC company.

NewYorker545

Thanks.

My hesitancy with disputing the charge with my credit card company (I already called them to discuss the issue) is I would lose my upgrade and possibly the entire reservation. Each time I upgraded the segments, my receipt showed a new ticket number. The original ticket number no longer shows up on my reservation.

awu25

I've had something similar happen to me in the past, 3-4 times before I started noticing. My B-up fares had a corporate discount about $90 cheaper. So when I went to do the instant upgrade online, I saw that the charge would be ~$7 of taxes. I thought no big deal, this is probably normal, and went ahead and processed it.

Later found out I was getting charged $97 instead of just $7. Took multiple calls, but the finally found out it was the difference in the corporate discount that was throwing everything off.

Thankfully, I no longer run into the issue while doing the upgrade online

mduell

Don't dispute the whole charge as illegitimate, just dispute the amount.

Often1

Do not dispute the charge until after you travel. As you point out and even if you only dispute the extra upfare (difference between what you were quoted and charged), when your CC issuer issues a temporary credit, UA will show that amount as an add/collect. Either you lose the UG or you are required to make up the add/collect before UA issues a BP.

The downside of this is that if you travel and lose the dispute, you have spent more than you had planned on the UG.

I would let this play out because you have a minimum of 60 days from the date the service is delivered to dispute.

NewYorker545

Thanks for all of the good advice.

I'll try to post an update if and when the issue is resolved.

alex_b

Also report this to DOT as they will probably have a view about these kind of behaviour.

Soccerdad1995

How long is it before you fly? If less than a month, then wait til after you fly and then dispute the price difference. There is an option for Chase disputes to state that you were charged an incorrect price.

NewYorker545

I fly out May 17. More details on Chase card disputes, please? I used a JPM Visa card.

K2BF

I have a similar situation to the original poster, except the amount involved for me are a bit higher.

I purchased a BF upgrade on united.com for the advertised price of ~$400. I paid with my check card and have a screen print of that amount being charged and my upgrade being applied. (in this case, I think it was a buy-up anyway)

When I received my receipt, it showed that my card has been charged over $2,500!

I called web support and they kindly (and correctly) said they would honor the ~$400 price shown online - as they could see it too. They took my credit card number again and ran this charge, saying they would "cancel" the original $2,500 charge which they admitted was incorrect.

What has happened now is that BOTH charges have been deducted from my bank account!!

I just got off the phone with web support who says they will "look into" refunding the $2,500 but it will take 7 to 10 days for the paperwork to go through. (Please note that the original erroneous charge and my call to complain about it were less than 10 minutes apart)

So I may or may not get the $2,500 within 7-10 business days. This is quite a bit of money for me to loan them for two weeks. (or maybe permanently) I do not want to lose the upgrade over this, but so far I've paid nearly $3,000 which I would happily take back at this point.

What are my options here to make United instantly reverse these erroneous charges? Do I have any recourse?