Does US have a 24 Hour Penalty Free Cancellation/Refund Policy?

 
Old Nov 23, 2011, 9:25 am
  #91  
 
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Thumbs up All's well

Originally Posted by Biggie Fries
First time 24-hour "canceller" as per new policy. Made reservation on line late afternoon, realized by evening it was not going to fly (figuratively), called premier desk and cancelled same evening. So far so good: In on-line system, now shows as cancelled.

But color me anxious. There is nothing on the cancellation that shows that I did it within 24 hours of booking. The kind and knowledgeable agent acknowledged that there is no cancellation number that accompanies the interchange (I did get her name) and ... I don't know ... complex system ... things fall through the cracks. The limited data above suggest (dog that does not bark, and all that...) that no one on this board has had trouble when scrupulously following the rule (telephonic cancellation). But has anyone come up with a way to "validate" or otherwise "memorialize" the occurrence of this oral interchange pending the credit card refund?

(It was/is a "big ticket" item, hence would be painful to chalk up to experience in the event of miscue....)
Originally Posted by intub8r
I did a 24 hour cancellation about 2 weeks ago. Booked online, called CP desk a couple hours later to cancel. Was told it would take 7-10 business days to process, and the refund appeared on my credit card activity in exactly that timeframe.

FWIW, I rebooked the same city pairs etc with different number of pax. Both reservations still appear in my online profile, but as you note the one does say "cancelled".

My advice is to wait patiently - but nervously - for a week, and check your credit card activity each day. If its not there in the right time frame, start calling again. I'm sure it'll be fine though.
Okay, have to give US -- and Barclay's (!) -- credit, since they did credit back to me the charges in five days (three business days, or less than 0.1 dog years).

Also, eventually the penny dropped, and I realized that I could/should be verifying via the check refund status link. When I did this (after I posted above, but before I got the charge reversed on the credit card), sure enough, there was an indication that the refund was pending. It would be interesting to know how quickly that shows up; since if it does so within a few minutes or so after hanging up from having canceled the ticket, that covers what was worrying me -- the prospect of getting into a (s)he siad / (s)he said thing in the unlikely but always possible event that an oral, telephonic request to cancel were not recorded within the 24 hour cancellation window.
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Old Nov 23, 2011, 9:57 am
  #92  
 
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Glad it worked out. As often as we point out flaws and shortcomings of the airlines here on this board, we have to keep in mind that most of the time they do most things right, and (eventually) get us safely (sometimes more comfortably than others) to our destinations.
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Old Nov 23, 2011, 11:07 am
  #93  
 
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Originally Posted by intub8r
Glad it worked out. As often as we point out flaws and shortcomings of the airlines here on this board, we have to keep in mind that most of the time they do most things right, and (eventually) get us safely (sometimes more comfortably than others) to our destinations.
Quite true.
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Old Nov 23, 2011, 11:48 am
  #94  
 
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In the couple of times I recall, it seems that the refund hits my card within a few days of the decision to refund.
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Old Nov 23, 2011, 12:08 pm
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An agent I spoke to last week says that the 24-hour cancellation policy is, in reality, a "by-the-end-of-the-next-day cancellation policy" because the reservations don't have time stamps, only date stamps.

Theoretically, you could make a res at 12:01AM on 12/24 and cancel is at 11:59PM on 12/25 -- and get a two-day "hold".

Can anyone confirm?
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Old Nov 26, 2011, 9:27 pm
  #96  
 
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Originally Posted by tommyleo
An agent I spoke to last week says that the 24-hour cancellation policy is, in reality, a "by-the-end-of-the-next-day cancellation policy" because the reservations don't have time stamps, only date stamps.

Theoretically, you could make a res at 12:01AM on 12/24 and cancel is at 11:59PM on 12/25 -- and get a two-day "hold".

Can anyone confirm?
Hmm, that would be interesting if true.

What timezone would the datestamp reflect? I'd assume MST (that's what they use in Phoenix, right?), but does anyone know?
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