I booked a ticket online, logging in using my One Pass number and password. Less than 24 hours later I cancelled the reservation. There was a message on the site notifying me the ticket was nonrefundable and requiring that I confirm that I want to cancel. I didn't recall seeing this before, so I called the Continental elite desk. The agent said to ignore the message, if you cancel within 24 hours you'll be refunded the money. So I cancel on the net.

Lo and behold, my American Express bill arrives yesterday, and there's a $1344 charge and no indication of a refund. So I call the Continental online help desk and speak with an agent. She agrees, I cancelled the ticket within 24 hours of making the reservation. But when I cancelled the ticket on the internet, I wasn't logged in under my frequent flyer number. She also said the Continental agent I spoke with was wrong -- if the screen on the ticket when you go to confirm you're cancelling says the reservation is nonrefundable, then it's nonrefundable.

She told me the best she could do was waive the $100 or $150 change fee and give me an electronic voucher. This was annoying for several reasons,

1. I have no idea how I cancelled the reservation online without logging in with my frequent flyer number. I didn't even know you could do that.

2. The first Continental agent told me to go ahead and cancel, even though the screen indicated ticket was nonrefundable.

3. The internet help person told me I'd have to call Continental to use the $1344 credit, or otherwise I'd be charged the change fee. If I book a cheap fare (although fortunately majority of time I don't) I won't get the credit toward elite status, that you can get only if you book on the internet.

4. It's just a general pain in the rear doing this. Given that it's a $1344 fare, I'll most likely only use part of the credit towards my first ticket, which means I'll end up having to wait on a paper certificate for 2nd ticket.

Anyway, the morals of the story, dear reader,

1. Make damn sure you log in with your one pass number before you cancel.

2. Make damn sure if you get a message that says ticket is nonrefundable, even though you're cancelling inside 24 hour window, that you call Continental on the phone and get them to cancel.

You will get all the miles and EQMs , you may have to call the 1P center but as long as they can see you purchased the 1st tkt OnLine @ CO youd get the miles and EQMs, or at least I always have.

I think you got different degrees of misinformation from both agents.

1) I can't imagine how you could've canceled the itin without being logged into your OP account, since the "24-hour cancel" option is only available to OnePass members, at least until Aug. 17th. Just a guess, but I wouldn't think that the "cancel" option would show up unless you were - or if it did, that not being logged in would matter, since the system would know the itinerary belonged to a OP member.

2) You can absolutely cancel nonrefundable tickets online and get a full refund within the 24-hour window without calling. I've done it lots of times.

Still, now you're in a bum situation. I don't think the repercussions are as bad as you've stated, with not earning EQMs, etc. We'll see what others might be able to offer on that.

Separately, I had an issue with this process that went something like this:

- Used online "cancel" feature within 24-hour window
- Went through screens and was given a choice to get the funds refunded to original form of payment, or preserve in the same confirmation number for later use. I chose the latter, then went to immediately rebook a slightly different itinerary.
- The system wanted a $150 change fee. My mistake was in not getting the full refund and then starting with a brand-new reservation. A call to the Internet help desk fixed it, though the agent repeated several times that it was my mistake, like she was doing a big favor in fixing it (OK OK! Mea culpa!).

If you canceled within 24 hours of purchase they should refund your money -- all of it -- and not give you a travel certificate. This is regardless of any of the refundability restrictions on the fare.

If this is indeed true, it is called chicken s_ _ _ bait and switch

I would agree that you should push for a refund and not take no for an answer. I would even think you could dispute the charge with the bank. Surely someone at CO can override this and give you a refund since they see you made a good faith effort to follow the rules and cancel the ticket within the 24-hour window.

devik, I've got an idea how I might have done this. There's a link in an Email message I got from Continental to My Reservations. You click on it and it takes you to a web page where you're asked to enter your record locator and last name. I don't remember doing any of this, but if you take that route you may log on without having to enter your One Pass number. I too was a little disappointed with the Continental Internet agent, who seemed to believe she was doing me a favor by waiving the change fee. She said too much time had elapsed (14 days since I made the reservation) and she couldn't refund the money.

Chasbondy, the exact same words passed through my mind.

xyzzy and mk1, I agree, they should refund. But is it worth the time? I envision spending an hour or two on hold, arguing with them, maybe writing a letter or two. If craz is right about the points and elite credit, maybe it's not. But then on the other hand, I can envision having to argue with them about the points and elite credit, and it's going to take some extra bookkeeping to do this right on my taxes -- it was a business trip, but now I'll probably be allocating at least part of the credit to vacation, that I can't deduct.

Obviously it would be more work for an agent to issue a refund after a certain amount of time has passed, but I would imagine it still can be done as situations arise. For example, wouldn't CO refund my ticket if they canceled service to an airport I'm booked to fly to/from?

The only way I would take the voucher is if I knew for sure I would spend it soon AND that it would work the same as cash (like a bump voucher, no restrictions, no EQM issues).

It's fairly simple, a CO agent gave you false information, saying you'd get refunded even though you didn't. You went out of your way to call them and check. It's entirely their bad, they got to refund. I wouldn't give up on that one until you get what you deserve.

O.K., I'm convinced. I'll try again tomorrow and see if I can get a refund. I'll let you know how it turns out.

I had the same problem. A refundable ticket and within the 24 hours. But co.com said "non-refundable" when I hit cancel. I called an agent who said she refunded the ticket but I have yet to see the credit. Obviously, there is a glitch in their system.

Same thing happened to me. I apparently logged on using my confirmation number and Last name and cancelled my flight within the 24 hr period. The one thing I noticed weird was that it said something along the lines of: This ticket has no value.... and I thought this was weird. It was bothering me, so I decided to call CO and said that I remember in previous times that I had cancelled a ticket it said something about refunding the $ to the original form of payment. So the CSR asked me (several xs) if I had logged in while I cancelled and of course I was positive that I had. She looked into it and said that I was not logged in and that I needed to make SURE that I logged in or they do not refund you. And she did me the favor of reversing it and cancelling to my orig form of payment. And it must say or give the option to refund to orig. form of payment, if it doesnt then you are not logged it.

I would complain to your cc company to have the charges put on hold. Print out your cancellation showing your canceled w/in 24 hours and print out CO's policy of refunding w/in 24 hours, and send that in if cc company asks for documentation. Do not bother cc with the story about the minutia of being logged into website properly or not. Just state facts: Canceled w/in 24 hours, CO did not refund as promised. Period.

FYI - the phone number for CO accounting/refunds is 800 932-2732.

I once had a dispute where accounting to me it would actually be easier for me to dispute the charge on my credit card. That, somehow, "kicked it back" to their system from which they removed/deleted it.

Agreed with all of the above. Unless there is something you're not telling us, you followed the rules, you are a OnePass member, you were a OnePass member when you booked the ticket, you booked online, you were told when you booked the ticket (" Note: OnePass members may request a refund within 24 hours when signed in at time of purchase of a revenue ticket. The option to hold your reservation is no longer available."), so dispute the charge with your credit card company.