Hi everyone -

I booked a one way ticket a few weeks ago for ORD-HND for $1200 in December, but unfortunately my travel plans changed. I figured I would just cancel the flight and get a FFC, but when I went to cancel the flight, I got a message that "This ticket cannot be refunded. If you cancel this flight, your ticket cannot be credited towards your original payment method or as a travel credit." I checked the fare rules (KLX5ISXK), and sure enough it says:

CHANGES/CANCELLATIONS
TICKET IS NON-REFUNDABLE. CHANGES NOT PERMITTED

I booked the ticket on UA.com and I'm 100% sure that it was never mentioned during the booking process that the ticket was non-cancellable and non-changeable. I've been either Platinum or 1K for the last 15-20 years so I've booked hundreds of flights on UA and I've never seen these rules before. It's true that I didn't check the fare rules before booking, but given how prominently they advertise their no change fee/free cancellation (for FFC) policy, I would expect that they would warn me before I book a fare that does not qualify for this policy.

My questions are:

1) I think I already know the answer to this, but would I have any chance of calling UA and getting a CSR to cancel the ticket and give me a FFC, explaining that the non-refundable/non-changeable fare rules were never pointed out during booking?

2) UA.com does give me the option to upgrade to Premium Plus for 30,000 miles or 20 PlusPoints. If I upgrade the ticket, would it change the fare rules so that I could cancel the ticket, or would the original rules still apply? I know I would lose the miles or points, but the $1200 is more valuable to me.

Thanks!