Originally Posted by
Ska.tm
It was a direct flight. It was a round trip ticket, booked directly with united and I’ve already done the EWR to HNL flight. Now they are saying I have to do an itinerary with a layover on the return flight. Had I chosen this originally, it would have been much cheaper....
A "non-stop" is a non-stop.
A "direct" flight actually involves a stop (and often even a change of planes), but have only one flight number for the two flights. This is a distinction frequent flying nerds like us tend to know. For example, UA could schedule a EWR-HNL bookable as flight 123 but the details would show a flight 123 from EWR to SFO on a 757 and a flight 123 from SFO to HNL on a 737. That would be considered a direct flight.
EWR-HNL without a stop is referred to as a non-stop, not a direct flight.
Yes, you should be able to get a full refund with the loss of the non-stop.
Edit: missed the part about already having taken the outbound. I'd see if HNL-ORD-EWR is an option - that would be a far better return for sleep than flying to the west coast..