Originally Posted by
IAH-OIL-TRASH
That's the way it usually works for me on a quick cancel. The cancelation is done so fast the hold on the charge card is removed. Not this time.
Originally Posted by
windhund
Brattflyer / IAH-OIL-TRASH -- I wonder if this is a new bug in UA's website. In the recent past, I've been able to cancel reservations online within 24 hours of making them, and I've never had any issues. The reservation showed up as Canceled, and I never got charged for the tickets. (In all these cases, UA put an authorization on my card for the amount of the ticket when I did the initial ticket. After canceling, the authorization remains for a little while but the transaction never gets pushed through.)
I encountered a somewhat similar problem. I canceled reservation "ABC" on Dec. 3 (within 24hr cancellation window and for travel on Dec 20), but elected to take the refund as "credit toward future travel." Reservation ABC was then stored as Inactive. To use the credit, I had to book new flights using the same reservation, ABC, and I incurred $200/ticket change fees. I spoke with a United rep who explained this was a system glitch and change fees should not have been charged against an itinerary originally canceled within 24hrs and asked that I submit a refund request. United Refunds denied my request and responded,
"I regret that Refunds didn't approve your request to issue a refund for the changes you paid on December 03, 2015 to reissue your ticket credits.
When you elect to cancel your ticket itinerary within 24 hours and have the ticket credits available to be reissue for future travel all penalty fees will apply."
So it appears that if I had used a certificate or elected a credit card refund, the full value of the tickets would have been refunded (without penalty). However, if you elect "credit toward future travel", there are change fees? I can understand the UA system might not correctly apply the 24hr rule with respect to travel credits (because the system categorizes the reservation "inactive" not cancelled), but I did not expect this interpretation from the Refunds dept.