Agreed; that's weird. I agree with findark, though. Unless one direction of your travel had a more restrictive rule, the amount should be refundable less a US$300 cancellation fee. I suspect the agent just made a mistake. Perhaps they were looking at the "after departure" rule by mistake.

Personally, I would call back and hope that you get a better agent.

UA Makes You Work for the ETC
 

Recently rebooked a ticket at a slightly lower price using the website, which stated I'd receive the differential as an ETC.

After two weeks, nothing (as usual). Had to email 1kvoice three times over the course of a week to get my ETC, which I finally received today. Classic example of UA never fixing the revenue positive IT bugs.

I am struggling here, folks. I am trying to re-book using past flight credit. However, when I tried to book a new throwaway flight (i was trying a LAX -> LAS one-way flight in the distant future), all I could see was Y fares (and B fares when I tried round-trip), so the throwaway flights end up being ~$700. Is it because of the booking system or something weird about my flight?

The online change feature can have problems. Just call and work with a phone agent. There is a small chance your international ticket has some very restricted change rules, but assuming no portion of the ticket has been used, the agent will cancel and use the credit for the throwaway (and generate an ETC).

Just have a cheap flight already investigated.

Just had this experience (all numbers hypothetical).

Cancelled non-ref ticket value: $1,000. Change fee: $200. New ticket price: $400. Charged $200 to my ccard, issued the new ticket and an ETC for $600. I thought change fees were generally debited against the cancelled ticket value rather than charged as an additional pay-in to United. Or am I mistaken.

The agent I spoke to when asking them to issue my ETC called it a "wrinkle" in the system.

UA has required “new money” for change fees on non-refundable fares for many years. The experience that you described is typical.

The "wrinkle" is that UA has, for many years, required payment of the pantly in "new money".

Just called UA customer service to clarify the rule of using credits from cancelled flights. She mentioned that on Nov 1, 2019, the rule has changed. Prior to the change, I would be able to use the credits before the original purchase date and the new flights can be after the original purchase date. The new rule requires that the new travel starts before the original purchase date. I did not ask about getting ETC for the residuals.

Huh? Do you mean one year after the purchase date?

Sorry yes.

A couple of years ago, I bought a noonrefundable business class ticket from US to Asia. The price was around US$6,500 return. Shortly thereafter, I had to cancel. So I had a $6,500 credit, in the form of an MCO (no, not Orlando, a miscellaneous charge order). I was not sure I would be able to use it within a year, because I did not have that much travel upcoming. But what I found is that every time I use the credit to buy a ticket, a new MCO was issued and the expiration date was then one year from issuance of new MCO. So the credit essentially lasts "forever," so long as I use it once a year. I did have to pay a change fee the first time I used it -- I think $150 or $200 -- but that was inconsequential given the amount of the credit.

A slight complication is that the MCO resides with the travel agent that issued the original ticket, so every time I want to use it, I have to get that agent to issue the ticket (and that agency is no longer our corporate travel agent, so we are not exactly their highest priority). But still it has worked out fine.

Cancellation Change Fees
 

I've been looking through the forums this morning trying to figure this out and I think I know based on some answers to a similar change thread but wanted to be sure.

I booked a reservation for 4 people and some things have changed so I might need to cancel that. I wanted to know, if I cancel the trip for all people on this one reservation how does my future flight credit work. Let's say the flights were $300 each so a total of $1200. When I go to use that flight credit in the future:
1) Does each traveler get the $300 future flight credit that must apply to them only?
2) Do I pay the $200 change fee per person or is it just one fee?

I believe the answers are 1) Yes, it is associated to that person and has to be used by them, and 2) It will be billed per person so a total of $800.

Just trying to sort out if it's less hassle to just take the trip and switch up the plans to avoid the hassle :)

I am well past the 24 hour window.

You really need to check the fare rules for each of the four tickets.

But, as a general rule, for a typical US domestic penalty fare, each passenger will have a $300 credit to use within a year from booking. At the time the passenger books a new ticket, he will pay a $200 change fee in new money. E.g., the penalty is not deducted from the credit, but is new money.

Just to be clear, this is a general answer and the fare rules for each ticket will control.

So many other considerations - if far out, schedule changes may allow free cancellation/refund, for example.

yes, change fees (technically a reissue fee) is per person. And yes, each credit must be used by the passenger on each ticket.

note that change fees must be paid with new $ (ie, you must pay $200 more to use the $300 per person). Also, if the new itinerary is less than the old, say it’s $200 each, the additional $100 will be put into an ETC in each travelers name, and that can be used for anyone - though you’ll need both the PIN and last name for each ETC. Also, only one ETC can be used per person later - ie, you can’t use the 4 ETCs for a future itinerary just for you, though customer service is able to combine them into 1.