We're not United people, but had an encounter today that I wanted to post and share.

Booked a one-way ticket from EWR-TPA for President's day weekend in Feb for about $400 for my wife. Ticket was booked last night at around 11PM. Return is on DL, and despite UA being $400, it was the most cost effective for the time she had to be there for a weekend bachelorette party, but I digress as none of those details are pertinent.

This morning, while at work, I find an alternative outbound that makes more sense for us on DL, so went ahead and booked it online. Since I was at work, asked her to call and cancel the ticket - which by now was 10hrs or so old. I was explicit to mention to her that agents by default mention a fee and you have to highlight that you are within the 24hr cancellation window.

We have no status with UA, so know we'd be treated like the herd, but this was a pretty simple thing, and should have been handled within a few mins. My wife calls in gets an agent after a wait, and asks to cancel. The agent states there will be a $180 fee. She cites the policy, and the agent says that policies have changed and the ticket she purchased was the most restrictive non-refundable economy ticket. She continues to cite policy, he places her on hold, comes back and says he can waive the fee down to $100 (like he's doing her a favor). My wife sticks to her guns and cites policy, the agent then actually tries to ask the reason she would like to cancel (as it would matter). My wife simple states she would like to cancel and its within policy. The agent then says he'll need to escalate to a manager and have a call back in 20mins.

She call's me after the first call, and I'm surprised to hear the problem. Never had I had such problem, nor do I think its legal since it is a DoT requirement. She finally gets a call from the manager that cancels for a full refund, no questions asked. Manager seems befuddled himself as to why the first agent would state that and escalate to him, but not really sure he does anything to address. Long story short, says my wife should receive an email shortly. She hasn't received an email yet - its been about 4 hours, but logging into her account, she sees the reservation is now gone, so we think we are in the clear.

I stumbled upon this thread after the encounter. Seems like UA had some issues with the policy last year, but nothing like an agent refusing to honor their own and DoT policy. Has anyone come across this before? And should we be concerned that we have nothing in writing to prove the cancellation, or any of the interactions with agents? I don't want this to go post 24hrs and due to some minor point get denied the cancellation.

Finally - whats your take on the first agent? Simply an unscrupulous agent trying to hustle a few bucks, or is this a larger UA thing? Is this something we should file a complaint with UA or even the DoT? As I stated above, manager didn't know why it was escalated to him, but also didn't seem to take any corrective action.

Appreciate the feedback.

Cheers!