Hello,

this is my first post here. I hope this wasn't asked before - i did a quick search but couldn't find anything quite similar.

In January we had booked a round trip for three (2 adults, 1 toddler) from SFO to Luxembourg in mid July.
Now United issued us new tickets and thus altered the itinerary.

Original itinerary:
Leg1:
Depart: San Francisco, CA, US (SFO) / Wed, Jul 15, 2020 01:35 PM
Arrive: Munich, DE (MUC) / Thu, Jul 16, 2020 09:40 AM

Leg2:
Depart: Munich, DE (MUC) / Thu, Jul 16, 2020 11:50 AM
Arrive: Luxembourg, LU (LUX) / Thu, Jul 16, 2020 12:55 PM

(2h time to make the connection - all good)


New itinerary:
Leg1:
Depart: San Francisco, CA, US (SFO) / Wed, Jul 15, 2020 03:20 PM
Arrive: Frankfurt, DE (FRA) / Thu, Jul 16, 2020 11:15 AM

Leg2:
Depart: Frankfurt, DE (FRA) / Thu, Jul 16, 2020 11:15 AM
Arrive: Munich, DE (MUC) / Thu, Jul 16, 2020 12:10 PM

Leg3:
Depart: Munich, DE (MUC) / Thu, Jul 16, 2020 11:45 AM
Arrive: Luxembourg, LU (LUX) / Thu, Jul 16, 2020 12:50 PM


* They have added a leg (pretty tough with a toddler)
* Transfer time between leg1 & leg2 is 0 minutes
* Transfer time between leg2 & leg3 is -25minutes
-> in my opinion this is an insane/impossible itinerary change.


Now i wanted to just request a cancel/refund through their refund form but i cannot submit it because it's still an "active" reservation.
It says: "For active reservations, cancel your reservation and request a refund at Manage Reservations"

At manage reservations i can cancel the flight and get a "refund" as either an Electronic Travel Certificate (ETC) or Future Flight Credit (FFC) but there's no option whatsoever to ask for a real refund.

How should i go about this? Cancel the flight and "take" the ETC and then submit the refund form? Or is this some sort of evil trick of UA to hand out credits instead of refunds.

Suggestions would be much appreciated.

Thanks & apologies if this was asked already.

Cheers,
-wolf