acousticbiker

I know there's no fee for the cancellation and redeposit of miles for Platinum members, but couldn't find info on what happens to the taxes/fees. Figured you guys would know...

lax2010

The normal tax and fee will be refunded as well.

channa

Usually takes a week or so, give or take, for United Continental Holdings to refund to the credit card used.

acousticbiker

Thanks, guys!

Costa19

Long story somewhat-short, I am looking to book the following itinerary:
ORD - SYD
SYD - ORD (stopover)
ORD - IAD

I am sure I will need to have a connection somewhere, but I don't believe that will factor into my question (as far as I can tell).

The ORD - SYD leg will take place mid-January of 2016, and I will be staying in Sydney for two weeks. I will then be returning to Chicago for a week before continuing on to DC.

The problem lies in the fact that a ticket can only be booked ~11 months out in my limited experience, and all travel must be completed within one year of the ticket being issued.

My question is, if I book this itinerary now as ORD-SYD on 1/9/16, SYD-ORD on 1/23/16, and continuing straight on for ORD-IAD leg, will I later be able to change the ORD-IAD date to beyond the 1-year-from-ticket-issuance date?

I wouldn't have thought so, but I have read conflicting reports on FT of a change such as this causing an entirely new ticket to be generated, and thus a new ticket issue date. I would have thought that it would keep the original ticket issue date and simply be a revision to that itinerary - but I am crossing my fingers for those reports to be accurate.

Does anyone have experience with this? Is this spot-on, wildly inaccurate, or YMMV?

Mwenenzi

Cash or award?
What class of travel?
Route will probably be ORD-LAX-SYD

Xyzzy

If your ticket is changed after issuance in a way that causes the agent to have it reissued you MIGHT be able to use it on a segment that is outside of the original ticket validity. In this case you also run the risk of having an agent deny your use of the ticket if they notice it was riginally issued more than one year prior to the date you wish to change your travel to.

Long story short -- don't count on being able to do this.

Costa19

Thanks for weighing in on this. I was hoping I was wrong, but I was expecting that this would be dicey at best and not something to count on.

Costa19

This would be an award flight, most likely in Y. But my only concern is regarding the ticket-issuance date. Would class of travel effect that?

SABruce1

I booked travel using my points for my wife and I from my account (same account for points for both travelers.) We were unable to use the reservation and needed to cancel. To redeposit the points it cost me $200 per person ($400 total) even though all points went back into the same account. I understand if the points came from different accounts and charging for two account redeposits but everything out of one account and everything into one account I would think should only charge for one re-deposit charge.

Anyone had this experience and receive a better explanation. I was told "thats just the rule who knows why?"

MatthewLAX

Welcome to FT.

UA charges $200 per ticket to cancel an award reservation -- makes sense to me, though of course I far prefer Alaska Airlines' approach.

I get your point about canceling with one keystroke, but just think of it as another money-maker for UA and a strategy to disincentivize frequent award booking cancellations.

uthornsgo

All about the money. That's why. Is is right? I don't know. Is it nice? No. Does it make you wish you had earned all those miles on another airlines? Probably so. Everyone on this board will agree with you that it's an insanely high fee and ridiculous, but unfortunately it's their policy and their fees have only gone up over the years. I'm sorry for your experience. If it was a death or an emergency maybe they would give you some consideration but aside from that I doubt it.

http://www.united.com/web/en-US/cont...ticketing.aspx

IAH-OIL-TRASH

Shouldn't be surprising - it's in the ticket service fees info (bolding mine):

"Award ticket service fees
The fees below apply to award travel on United, United Express®, Star AllianceTM airline partners and other airline partners.
Fees apply to each ticket individually. If multiple people are traveling together, there is a fee for each traveler.
When flying with one of our Star Alliance partners, changes must be made at least 24 hours before departure.†
Fee level is based on the MileagePlus status of the member whose miles were used to book the award.
In addition to change fees, some award changes may also require additional mileage."

The re-deposit fee for each General Member is $200 (also clearly listed in table on same page).

http://www.united.com/web/en-US/cont...ticketing.aspx

I agree with the fees - last thing UA needs to do is let people sit on award reservations they may or may not use (and in the process, reducing inventory). That privilege should be reserved for 1Ks . The $ penalty for reducing inventory available to others who would actually use the tickets is appropriate. Two seats were taken out of availability, so two penalties should be assessed.

WineCountryUA

ahhh, the blogger "free" OW - You may find UA has tighten up on this unintended use of awards

Asiatraveler15

It is definitely a positive benefit as a 1k to cancel award travel w/o penalty.

I must have done this at least 6 times last year.
Already again this year.