Originally Posted by
ATX83
It was a non-refundable ticket, which is why I'm fairly certain it won't be a full refund, based on my research.
That's definitely the correct answer. Out of curiousity, what made you think a non-refundable ticket would have been eligible for any kind of refund in the first place?
However, it seems that United should communincate this once I issued my initial refund request.
The refunds department is notorious about doing this. I had a problem with a refund (on a refundable ticket) in that there was something preventing the refund from happening, so they kept rejecting the request but didn't communicate it to me. They can definitely stand to improve this process.
How can I determine whether or not I have the credit (minus the $150 change fee)?
It's automatic. There's nothing you need to do. Actually, you have credit for the full value of your original ticket, upon payment of an additional $150 change fee. Keep ahold your six-digit record locator. You should see it under one of the tabs on united.com, or in your original email.
When you're ready to re-use the value, access that old reservation on united.com, select Change Flights, then select your new flights. It will calculate the additional amount you have to pay, which will be $150 plus any amount of the new ticket over the original ticket, and collect it at that time. If the new ticket is less than the original, you'll get the difference back in the form of an electronic travel certificate which can be used within the next year on yet another ticket.
But you don't get an electronic travel certificate just for cancelling a ticket. When you cancel, you just use the original confirmation number to access the value in the future.
Again, I spoke to several agents and no one mentioned this.
Did you ask about re-using the value of the ticket in the future? If all you keep asking about is how to get a refund, they're going to provide you with information about requesting a refund. I am a bit surprised that nobody has mentioned that you are not entitled to a refund.
I also checked my acct on United.com (as I fly United every few weeks) and there's no indication of a credit.
As already mentioned, it will show up as a Past, Cancelled, or Inactive itinerary, not as a dollar value credit.
One other thing to note: did you actually cancel your original reservation prior to departure? If not, then the ticket "has no value" as the value goes away if you just no-show without canceling. You can cancel 1 minute prior to departure and be okay, but if you just no-show, then you lose the ticket. I don't know if requesting a refund will implicitly request a cancellation if done prior to departure. And, if the request for a refund was done after original departure, then it doesn't matter. If you no-showed on the reservation and this is part of your problem, you *may* be able to get that reinstated by pleading your case.
The first thing I would do is log in now to united.com, find your old reservation, do a phantom Change Reservation, pick new flights and get to the point where it tells you the new total and shows you that it applied your old value, but prior to confirming the payment details. If you can get that far, then that tells you have your existing ticket's value preserved for future use, and you can bail out of the process.