If I cancel air travel booked on Chase's Ultimate Rewards site using Ultimate Reward points, will the points be posted back into my account (refunded)? If refunded, are there any redeposit fees.

Thanks in advance.

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I made a booking on Virgin Atlantic on an "airline fare basis" for which the ticket is refundable (if canceled) after applying a small penalty. The Ultimate Rewards booking site showed me the terms and conditions of the airline fare basis (indicating the ticket is refundable) but after going through the booking steps, on the final screen, the Chase Ultimate Rewards site, inserted a message "This ticket is non-refundable."

So, I first called Virgin which told me that if I had directly booked the identical ticket with the same fare basis with Virgin directly, it would be refundable, whereas, travel agencies are free to add their own clauses making the ticket more restrictive (such as non-refundable). So, I called the Ultimate Rewards booking customer service, and they admitted that they add the "This ticket is non-refundable" clause to almost all airlines tickets sold by them irrespective if the ticket is actually refundable or not. They said that they don't apply the clause only to a few airlines such as Southwest).

I am VERY disappointed with Ultimate Rewards. In exchange for a 50% bonus in value for booking on their site using the Chase Sapphire Reserve card, or a 25% bonus if using a Chase Sapphire Preferred Card, one is, in effect, having to forgo the benefits of an otherwise refundable ticket and be compelled by Ultimate Rewards to accept the ticket as non-refundable.
This is a terrible practice! I am posting this here so as to warn you!

 

Starting point: https://ultimaterewardspoints.chase....=&item=2104022

 

Next: https://ultimaterewardstravel.chase...._ltg=UR2Footer

 

I would also add that UR shows ONLY the lowest fares that do not include a checked bag. There are no options to choose a slightly higher fare that includes a check bag.

This can create a costly problem if you are accidentally sold the Basic Economy by AA/UA.

Or a Economy Saver ticket by International carriers when their carry-on allowance is limited to 8kg even the size might be the same as US domestic.

The fare that allows you to checked one bag usually is $20 higher, but if you do not buy that, and later find out your bag is over 8kg and you need to check it, the checked bag fee after initially ticket purchase, would be 50% higher when purchased online, and 100% higher at the airport check in.

This, would completely wipe out all the UR saving and then some!

Be very careful when you use UR to book travels, whether it is airline tickets / hotel bookings (you forfeit elite benefits and hotel credit night if not booked directly with the chain)/ and other miscellaneous items. The 1.5x only looks good in theory but in my experiences, it is HARD to use for our travel pattern. Others may fare better.

 

I haven't booked international recently, but last I checked, the website tells you if you're booking a basic economy ticket.

Inconvenient as it may be, you can call in and get any fare class available to them.

 

I just booked two nights hotel through UR. They had the word refundable on the room but when I got the email confirmation, it had a 75 cancellation fee. If I cancel the reservation 3 days before check in and a full night charge if I cancel 2 days before lol. The funny part if you book directly with hotel, I can cancel a day before check in without any penalties.

 

Do we know what Connexions does in practice if you request a refund of a ticket that is refundable according to the issuing airline's terms? I merged an earlier thread into this one, and their published terms incorporate a refund mechanism.

 

Have you actually called in to request a specific class of service, and were successful with that request? A previous rep told me this was not possible, but I'll try again if it worked for you. Thanks.

 

I'm curious about this as well. Recently used some points and bought a ticket that was basic economy. Worked out fine, but I would have happily paid the extra $20 if given the option.

For hotel bookings they do have room options/upgrades some of the time but for airfare it appears that it is always the cheapest ticket.

 

That has been my experiences when trying to book on SAS and LOT. It only showed the cheapest fares, while the airlines have 3 fares for coach.

Gave up and booked directly with the airlines.

I also noticed the hotels have room options and some say refundable. However even with the "discount" I have found the Hyatt Regency in Hong Kong, would still cost me more using UR pts versus transferring the UR to Hyatt to book as a reward. Plus booking direct with Hyatt even as an award, one still gets some benefits like free internet, a fruit plate and occasional room upgrade even just the lowly status from the Hyatt card. Booking thru UR using UR pts, one loses all these little extra. Not worth it even it is slightly cheaper. In this case it actually is more expensive if I book a flexible rate room that is only comparable to an award stay which is fully cancellable with the same condition as a flexible rate.

 

Unfortunately, you haven't read the thread. The issue is that an identical (identical = same) fare basis that is refundable on Virgin is sold by Chase Ultimate Rewards as non-refundable. The Chase Ultimate rewards site is thus downgrading a ticket's status on its own. As the title of the thread explains it clearly!

I spoke to the rep and she told me that I would lose all my points used to book the ticket because their (Ultimate Rewards/Connexions) terms clearly stated that the ticket is non-refundable (and that the airlines fare basis doesn't matter because those were not the terms on which Ultimate Rewards was sold to me).

She also confirmed that Connexions makes all tickets non-refundable for almost all airlines (with the exception of airlines for which the cancellation has to be initiated directly with the airline and not the travel agency such as Southwest.) For all other airlines (virtually all airlines), which require a travel agency such as Connexions to process the cancellation (because the travel agency initiated the booking), Connexions offers no refund.

Kindly note that I am only talking about cancellation of a ticket and NOT for changes.

 

...and yet their own written terms state otherwise. I don't doubt they may try to bully customers into accepting this interpretation, I am just curious if they will back down if pressed. I am also curious if Connexions does the same for tickets booked with ThankYou Rewards.

 

Unfortunately, you haven't read the thread, because I wasn't responding to you.

As others have stated, the "nonrefundable" language appears to be boiler-plate, and they do have a mechanism for getting a refund. Whether that will actually work in the case of your particular ticket, I can't say.

 

Please write about Chase products, policies and practices, not about other poster's reading comprehension. Two issues are interspersed in the discussion:

1. Connexions practice of appending non-refundable language to some tickets which would be refundable.

2. Connexions practice of offering the lowest price economy class ticket, even if it is a new age Basic Economy fare.

The second topic is already discussed here:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/chase...ts-2017-a.html

We will let this thread run for awhile to see if some or all of the posts should be merged into the primary thread.

 

I am curious as well. Do they insert the "this ticket is non-refundable" clause simply because they don't want to be bothered as they can't make any money out of it?

I wish an Attorney General looks into the issue. How can travel agencies arbitrarily decide on the non-refundability of the ticket when per the airline terms it is refundable?