Somewhat complicated flight question
 

Say I booked a flight on United that departs July 1st. Return ticket is for October. Between flight to destination, and ticket departure date, I fly back home using miles.

If the ticket is class V and fully refundable, what are my options for the credit of flight back?

A) one way back to that destination then take flight home.
B) Change ticket and pay $300 fee but have to get back there.
C) Change ticket to a completely different coming/going and use the credit from that ticket towards new one.

Anyone?

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry: BlackBerry8530/5.0.0.1030 Profile/MIDP-2.1 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/417)

If those are your only options, it sounds to me like you do not have a "fully refundable" ticket.

If it's really "fully refundable", (but not "half refundable") you will most likely not have a "date change" fee.
That would normally mean you can take the return portion at any time within the year's ticket validity, if there were seats available.

But there would probably be a "route change" fee, since you now want a completely different ticket, more like an "open jaw" than a return. That would resemble your option C.

We have had some luck at work getting partial refunds on unused portions of our service people's itineraries , but when I say "partial" , I mean not much.

As this is better directed to the United forum, I'll move it there. Ocn Vw 1K, Moderator, TravelBuzz and United.

do you have to go back?

IIRC, UA will refare your ticket before refund (as RT and OW charges differently for international routes) and then issue the difference (not the unused portion).

So in that case, my suggestion is, if not yet ticketed, is see if your ticket charges the same as buying 2 OW. If so, buying 2 OW will be a easier choice.

Otherwise, change fee.

This is one where it pays to fare all options before purchasing. Don't focus on the $300 change fee because it may be cheaper to pay that than the cost of fully refundable tickets.

Buy whatever is cheapest, taking into account all factors.