Just spent over two hours with three 1K reps (HUCA).

I had a flight booked for $1,600 for two pax. It's been 10 days since I booked. I called today to change the return flight to a later time so we don't need to rush to the airport at 5 AM.

All two of the three reps called faring and could not find the fare that I have pulled up on united.com, which is $1,275.

First rep was totally useless. Transferred me to "web support", told me to talk to them and see if I could get the fare, and hung up the phone. Twenty minutes spent.

Second rep was a little more helpful. She called faring but they couldn't find the same price I had up on united.com. They could only find $1,520 for the exact same flights. She told me to cancel the original $1,600 flight and rebook the itinerary and price I have on united.com with future flight credit. I agreed after being on the phone 45 minutes with her and seeing a light at the end of the tunnel.

So I go on united.com and have my flights at checkout but can't access the flight credits. I can see the future flight credit if I enter my PNR and last name into the search form but can't access them at checkout. I log out and log back into the site, put the flights back into my cart and attempt to check out. The credits aren't accessible even if I look for them on the checkout page (even though I can see the $1,600 credit from the My United page if I search for travel credits).

Third rep tried to be more helpful. I told her that I was just trying to access my future flight credits so I could make a booking online. She asks for the PNR and finds the credit and wonders why I can't apply them. I tell her about the previous two calls and that I just wanted to change the inbound section of my flight for more sleeping/resort time. She then, by her own admission, mistakenly splits the future flight credit to two passengers and offers to rebook just me. I tell her that that's not what I want to do. There are still two passengers traveling. She apologies and says that she has made a lot more work for herself, then gives me a new PNR for the other passenger's future flight credits. I tell her the exact flights that we want and she can't "book us into W" and that she would call faring to fix the issue. She comes back a while later and tells me the fare is $1,500. I tell her that I literally have the $1,275 fare and am at checkout. I can tell that she's getting tired at this point and offers to transfer me to her supervisor. I agree but then she says she'll just talk to the supervisor herself. The final solution that the supervisor came up with was for me to book the $1,275 fare I have in my checkout and "the future flight credits will be there" when you want to book your next flight. An hour plus on the phone this third call.

So, I booked the flights for $1,275 to hold the price using the 24 hour cancellation window and am wondering why United reps can't access the fares that are available on united.com. Even after booking the $1,275 flight, I can find fares for two passengers on the same flights for $1,280.

What exactly do I need to ask for to have the original $1,600 future flight credits translated into the $1,275 fare that I booked and then get a refund for the $1,275 fare before 24 hours is up?