My e-mail to SMI/J requesting a refund resulted in a short letter from Customer Relations, saying they wish they could have a do-over of that day and do it right, and that they encourage me to look forward and we will all get through this merger. The refund was never addressed.
31 days ago I spoke to a manager at my CC who decided to open a dispute anyway.
Last night he called me and said UA is fighting the dispute, he faxed me their paperwork. A UA auditor wrote a letter stating that I made a voluntary exchange of my ticket for another ticket, and that the fare was the exact same, and that the amount in dispute is a valid change fee. He also states that I was made aware of this before the new ticket was issued. He includes many pages of my PNR showing 12 changes including a line saying something like NoRef 150 change fee.
The CC company says that it would help if I can provide the receipt for the upgrade. Unfortunately, I don't have this. I was confirmed and moved on and my company won't pay for the upgrade, so I didn't keep it. When I enter my ticket number into .bomb, it says that ticket does not exist. When I enter the new ticket number, it shows my new flight, and a ticket price of over $1,200 which was not the case.
The CC manager said I can provide a statement and my customer service e-mails, but its hard to do much without the upgrade receipt.
I really think I should just drop this and move on. I am worried if I do pursue it, and somehow prove it, that the auditors will cancel all of my tickets or cancel my MP account.
I spoke to a travel editor about it, and he said that many times if a customer wins a charge back, the airline will simply send the customer to collection. He offered to contact them on my behalf, but said he would then have to write about it using my full name which I do not want him to do. So I requested he not do it.
I think the moral from this for me is to never pay for a buy-up if the fare is the same as a change fee, never pay for a buy up if I am connecting, and always keep my buy-up receipt if the first two criteria are not met.