Originally Posted by
emcampbe
I canceled awards online not too long ago...maybe 3 weeks, and miles went back into my account instantly. That's typical, IME, although there have been some reports of this not always happening. YMMV, I guess. If you are looking for the specific line depositing it back, it can be a bit tricky to find, as it typically dates back to the same date the award was initially redeemed.
Do you have enough miles to cover the new award without canceling the existing? If so, I'd try booking the new award first, waiting for it to confirm/ticket, and then cancel the old. If not, can always see if a phone agent can help, or perhaps try clearing your browser cookies and/or using a different browser and completing the change first. Maybe it's just me, but I'd be a bit weary of canceling something workable but not the most ideal before booking the ideal replacement, in case of error on the new one, and then you have nothing. Especially when it involves partner inventory, which isn't always 100% reliable.
I didn't have enough miles for a whole 2nd set of awards.
I'm only Silver...I know there's no chance of actually getting the attention of a human at United. I used to use Chat but that hasn't worked for me at all in the past couple months. Tried a couple times and it said "30-60 minutes", but the login session times out before anybody ever responds to the chat.
So I canceled and rebooked, and it worked fine. As everyone said, the miles return instantly and I was able to rebook and get a new ticket issued in about a minute.
Still a little anxiety-inducing to cancel an intercontinental award with a partner segment....even though I'm looking at the available seats on the revised itin as I do it.