Originally Posted by
alchemista
I couldn't find a recent thread on how to check if a UA flight is refundable, and the ones I did find weren't helpful in my case.
From an older thread, it seemed that the "PENALTIES" section of fare rules would be empty if it was a nonrefundable ticket. However, this section in my fare rules is long and has a bunch of "if"s so it is hard to tell if any of these scenarios apply to me. (I pasted it at the bottom)
UA's website also has a cancellation page, or you can pull up a reservation and go through the cancel process. When I do this, the "Reservation Value" section says that my reservation has a value of $300 but then has words that this will not be refunded/credited (I don't know if this just means that it's not automatically refunded, as usually you have to cancel first and then request a refund). However, I seem to be able to change the flight for free - change fee is $0 - which usually means it was non-refundable.
The easiest way post-purchase is look at the endorsements line on the receip... 99.9999% of the time (in my experience) if it is refundable the endorsement will read -/-REFUNDABLE-/- -- otherwise typically the endorsement is something like -/-NON REF/0VALAFTDEPT/CHG FEE-/- -- during the checkout flow UA.com will also say something like "by clicking below you accept the fare rules associated with this (refundable/nonrefundable) ticket...."
From the fare rules you posted (and being on mobile with about three hours total of sleep in the past two days) it appears that a ticket issued solely on the basis of those rules should be refundable -- hoerver -- if that fare was combined on a ticket with more restrictive (nonrefundable) rules, the most restrictive rules control, or if the ticket was purchased using funds from a previously nonrefundable ticket those funds remain nonrefundable.