This is a mini-rant.

I cancelled an award ticket last Dec and was told my taxes would be refunded to my credit card in 2-3 billing cycles. I hadn't done this before and thought that it's strange that while a UA purchase will take 1-2 days to show up on my credit card account, a refund will take 2-3 months, but I figure that's another way the airlines make some of their money.

Two months passed by, and I called the 1K desk to see if they've even started to process the refund. The agent told me that "it's just too soon" and wouldn't even look into it at all.

Another month later, I called the 1K desk again and was told to call the ticketing refund desk at 1-888-551-6881. This got me to ICC, and the wait was very long. After 30 minutes, the agent came on, and after several iterations of talk-and-hold, he came back and said that they had put through a refund that did not go through, after which the matter was dropped (and obviously I was never informed about that). So, they'd re-process the refund, which would take 7-10 business days. He even gave me a reference number for the refund transaction.

Ten business days later, I called the same number, and after another 30 minutes on hold, another agent told me to call the international ticketing desk. I then explained to him what had transpired 10 days earlier, and more iterations of talk-and-hold later, he came back and said the other guy from 10 days ago never processed the refund, despite the 'reference number,' which turned out to be a new ticket number. (I didn't quite understand this and didn't inquire further.) He said he'd process it, and after holding for another 10 minutes, the phone line was dropped.

I seriously wanted to forget about this whole fiasco at this point, but by now I also wanted to get this over with. So, not knowing what to do, I called the 1K number. The agent said I should not have called the regular ticketing refund desk, and he would transfer me to the 1K refund desk and make a personal introduction before hanging up on me. (This is my lesson learned - call the regular 1K desk and ask to be personally transferred to the 1K refund desk, instead of calling the regular refund desk.) The 1K refund desk turned out to be ICC also, but the staff seemed more experienced. He was certainly more pleasant and had better service skills. He said he'd process the refund, which will take 7-10 business days.

So, now, 3 months later, I still don't have my refund, but hopefully, in another 7-10 business days...