Originally Posted by
snic
Mini-snic (my daughter) and I are scheduled to travel in a few days. Mrs. snic was hospitalized about a week before our departure date. She is out of the hospital now, but weak, and I may need to postpone or cancel the trip so I can care for her.
The fares are nonrefundable S fares, with I think a $200 change fee. They are actually two one-way tickets (because I couldn't get united.com to price it out as a roundtrip, and went the easy route of booking two one-ways instead of calling web support). Anyway, for the two of us, the $800 in change fees would exceed the price I paid for the two tickets.
From this thread I gather I should pay the change fees, then ask for a refund of the $800 (less a $50 per ticket fee).
1. Is needing to stay home to care for a recovering spouse a valid basis for the fee refund request? What documentation will UA want?
On the
refund web site it says "If you have an immediate family who is sick: Please provide the name, address and telephone number of the hospital where they are admitted and the name of their doctor." But she is no longer hospitalized. Would a doctor's note saying she was in the hospital a week ago and needs at-home care now suffice?
2. Any way to get them to reduce the $50 per ticket to $50 per round trip?
Wording of the dr's note is critical. It would be strongly advised that you ensure it say something to the effect of "patient is not medically cleared for air travel until mm/dd/yyyy and requires constant in-home care from spouse or other caregiver until mm/dd/yyyy". The people processing the refunds are ruthless. I'm 6 months into a similar refund fight that will soon be headed to the DOT for an attempt at resolution, since UA is unresponsive to my requests supported by proper documentation.
You are correct that you will have to change the reservations, pay the change fee then ask for a refund of the fee less $50 processing -- this is assuming that your wife is cleared for air travel within the next year. In other words you'll get $150 back per ticket for change fees -- if your new fares are lower than your currently booked fares you will get the difference for each ticket back on an ecert (TCVA), NOT cash.