If you cancelled and created an new reservation, you should be fine. If you "changed flight" that might be a problem

So is the right way to cancel and rebook a second time rather than modifying the flight to get the lower price?

Yes, Additionally, you may find trying to change to a lower price on the same flight is not possible. Note the recommendation to cancel and new booking as been the recommendation for years, see the wiki.

Thank you!

If you book a last minute non-refundable flight and need to cancel, does United refund the entire fare to the original payment method?

All UA tickets can be refunded to the original form of payment within 24 hours of purchase. UA reserves the right not to do so for tickets purchased within 7 days of departure (in line with the applicable DOT regulation), but, in practice, I haven't yet seen any reports of people being denied refunds based upon that technicality.

Was just wondering is it a true 24 hours or is it " 1 day". If you booked a ticket at 11am do you have just until 11am the following day or until end of the day 11:59pm the following day?

Thanks.

I believe it is 24 hours, not end-of-the-next-day.

24 hours exactly from time of purchase.

24 hours. Agents can still make exceptions if its close, but if you do it on your own the system will impose a hard 24 hour limit.

I realize this was from September, but feel it needs a correction. It is not all UA tickets, only tickets purchased directly through a United booking channel (contact center, website, app or ticket office) which is consistent with the DOT requirement. When you book through a travel agency (including OTAs like Expedia) the 24 hour policy does not apply. Travel agencies have a separate mechanism where they can guarantee airfare for 24 hours (technically through the next business day), but once they ticket it (which most OTAs ticket immediately) the value of that ticket is technically committed and not eligible for a 24 hour refund.

The full details of their flexible booking policy are spelled out here: https://www.united.com/ual/en/us/fly...ng-policy.html

Has United ever been known to miscount 24 hours and give less than 24 hours in practice for a refund?

I had two tickets booked yesterday (more than 7 days out) that I noticed today were cheaper in price. I went to cancel them 23 hours later, with almost an hour to spare. Both were forcing the refund to future flight credit, FFC. I double checked the original reservation email time and I was 100% within the 24 hours. I thought it was a glitch, so I canceled one to see and sure enough it issued a FFC. I was able to call United Reservations and get the other one refunded back to credit card but still at a loss for how 24 hours can be miscounted.

I hit this issue today and yesterday as well. The first flight I cancelled close to 24 hours, so figured it was a one-off glitch, but the second one was about 20 hours after I first booked it. The agent said they couldn't process it either without manager approval. Definitely sounds like a new bug on their end.

perhaps related to the IT ‘upgrade’ a couple of weeks ago, which seems to have messed up a few things.

IME, canceling within 24 hours has worked pretty well, but it’s been a while since I’ve used it….

I have cancelled plenty of tickets since that "IT upgrade" and they processed as normal. It's not related to the IT upgrade.

-RM

Is DoT/credit card dispute the best approach at resolving the following?

Booked domestic US ticket in October. Partial paid with travel bank and credit card. Cancelled within 24 hours.

Portion paid with travel bank back in travel back but credit card portion not in my card. Two UA chat sessions in November mentioned it was refunded to "gift accounting" which they indicate is travel bank. It's not in my travel bank.

UA chat refund agent passes me to Mileage Plus chat agent who then passes me to reservations chat agent who then escalates and promises a response in 3-4 business days. No response. Chatted again with them just now (3rd time) and same thing. Refund->MP->Reservations->escalated and wait for response.