No, that’s not true. AFAIK, UA doesn’t offer a BE product to Japan.

What they do offer in select markets is an economy (or business class) product that doesn’t allow changes. This predates COVID and was often seen on deep discount fares with their JV partners. (I saw this restriction frequently on P fares to Europe).

OP: The fare rules are definitely disclosed during the purchase process, but I agree that they don’t make any particular effort to call out this restriction. That said, UA may have given you an out, because they market “flexibility” all over the place. I would call and ask if it could be converted to FFC. If they say no and refer to the fare rules, point out that UA has been marketing the flexibility of their fares, such as where they say there are “no change fees” for international itineraries departing the US: https://www.united.com/ual/en/US/fly...hange-fee.html

While “no change fees” and “ability to change” are not quite synonymous, it’s a pretty reasonable assumption to make, and I suspect that you may be able to get a “one-time exception” to let you keep your funds in this case.