Retiredlife

Our flight to Turks and Caicos was cancelled just as we were about to leave for the airport today. They automatically rebooked us on the flight tomorrow (no connecting options available), but downgraded us from first to coach. They didn’t even assign us seats, and when I went online to try to get seats, I had to pay to at least get us in Economy Plus.

I have tried contacting United both by phone and their chat option, but can’t seem to get past the automated stuff to talk to an agent. (None of the options they present get to my issue, and I’m afraid to say anything like cancel or refund - I don’t want the bots cancelling our rebooked flight.)
How do I go about requesting a refund of the difference between what we paid for first class and the coach seats we wound up in? Is it better to try handling this at the airport when we check our bags?

jsloan

It depends. Do you want to take the flight? Because if you do, requesting a refund at the airport is a step in the wrong direction.

Wait until travel has completed on the ticket, and then you can request a refund. Any refund they process prior to departure has a very good chance of resulting in you no longer having a ticket.

WineCountryUA

Calling most likely would have gotten you free E+ --- on the phone instead of response to the request to select an item, verbally ask for "agent" or "reservations"

Did you happen to capture the cost of economy when you purchased?

Refunds in this situation can be smaller than what you might hope for.

Has UA offered any compensation for the cancellation. Any reason for the cancellation?
Appears to have been an aircraft issue
Delays to the next day is common in these locales with limited service.

Post flight go to http://united.com/refunds

chavala

I find if I keep screaming “AGENT!!!” into the phone, eventually one will pick up 😜

ryman554

Just hit 0. Less embarrassing in the airport line!

stevendorechester

Did you ask to be rebooked on another carrier?

United has rebooked me on another airline in the past when the delay was their fault.

Retiredlife

Thanks for the replies. I thought they surely would have booked us seats in EPlus when they did the rebooking, and expected an agent to do so if I could get through to one, but my attempts to say “Agent” to the recorded voice weren’t working, and I gave up after a few tries, since the EPlus seats were rapidly disappearing. I spotted the last available window seat in EPlus for me and an aisle seat for my husband in the same row, so grabbed them, only to find out later my window seat, in row 12, has essentially no window. Sigh.
No chance to try for a different carrier - there’s only one flight a day from DC, and the flights from other cities leave earlier or shortly after ours was supposed to leave IAD, giving us no time to make a connecting flight through another city.
A real bummer. Only good thing is that I had bought trip insurance (for the first time ever) which should pay for the hotel night we weren’t able to use. (Yes, I’ve checked the policy terms, and it should cover it.)