Originally Posted by
jsloan
As soon as the flight was shown as canceled in United's system, you should have been able to be rerouted at no charge.
I would fly the route as ticketed, and then I would file a consumer complaint. UA may give you a refund, or at least give you an equivalent amount of travel credit. The user who said this is a post-purchase price increase, I don't think that's really the case because partner airlines are involved and I don't think UA serves FLR directly. But generally this would be a non-issue to handle, especially for a cancellation with one LH group airline and being moved to another.
I ended up filling the customer care form from the United website. I did not know this is something you do after the trip is completed, so I got a reply telling me alternatives one of which was to call a phone number. I called and the agent said that I had been charged the fare difference because I had changed the partner airline and that was considered to be my choice. I told the agent there were no choices with the same partner and all the choices included a fare difference. I was told to resubmit the customer care form after I completed the trip and that they would take care of it. Surprisingly the next day a United agent called me and told me she would be sending us travel credit certificates for the difference in fare plus $25.