Last edit by: WineCountryUA
FFC == "Future Flight Credit"
When re-booking 3-March 2020 purchased tickets, if the new ticket is cheaper you will receive an ETC (good for 24 months); starting April 2021, this is now a new form of FFC
However for tickets purchased 3 March or later, the fare rules now state there is no "residual value" meaning no ETC for the fare drop and if you have to rebook again the credit is just the value of the new ticket.
For pre-1 April 2020 purchased, FFCs will be good for 24 months from the original purchase date
And there are no change fees
Change Fees Are Gone For Good
For purchases starting 1-April, the lifetime of FFCs are returning to the traditional 12 months from purchase
In some cases of voluntary cancellations, FFCs may be convertible to ETCs (seems pre 1 August 2020 purchase is a factor) but this can only be requested on the phone and may take days/weeks. This may be a way to avoid the problem of "no residual credit" YMMV
Update 4 April 2020
The below needs to be updated based on the changes above
This wiki discusses the for steps in using the "future flight credit" from a canceled non-refundable ticket. Note this is for the cancellation of an entire ticket -- the process is different for a partial flown ticket
- Note some tickets are non-changeable and have no residual value if not flown:
United's Basic Economy - Discussion, Q&A, ...
New UA/*A TATL -LGT Economy fare - first bag charged, no changes allowed
- Notify UA of the cancellation before the scheduled departure. An absolute must, if not done the entire value will be lost. But see note below about Travel Waivers
- Wait until you are ready to reschedule. When ready you will need to pay a change fee in new money - the fee varies and will depend on the fare rules of the original fare. Note in many cases there is no longer a change fee (BE and flights origining outside the USA may still have a fee)
- If an ETC is issued, all of the funds in it must be used withinone twos year of issuance.
To get maximum ETC (or new type FFC), an option is to pay the change fee (if any) and book the cheapest possible OW fare and throw that ticket away -- how to find that cheap fare, see Cheapest possible flight (How do I redeem this flight credit?)
If the reason for the change / cancellation is due to medical issues or death of a close relative, see Consolidated "Refunds/Cancellations Due to Illness/Death" Thread [Merged] for the process to get a refund of the change / redeposit fee.
Other cases for "free" changes are:
1) if the flight is covered on the day of departure by a waiver (WX related or other reasons). Note there may be a limited time frame for the change fee waiver.
2) or by an airline's change in schedule
What if it is 1 year from the original ticket purchase date and I am not ready to buy another United ticket using my canceled ticket's funds? Buy a throwaway ticket on the cheapest fare you can find. United will issue an Electronic Travel Certificate for any unused funds. That ETC is valid for one year from issuance (see https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/united-airlines-mileageplus/1369495-ua-electronic-travel-certificates-etc-general-q-new-combinability-policy-34.html). If you do this on the expiry date of your original ticket, you effectively extend the availability of the funds for an additional year at the cost of a throwaway ticket.
What if I purchase a refundable ticket with the credit from the non-refundable ticket, can I then cancel and get a refund? No, the funds from a non-refundable purchase remain non-refundable even if used to purchase a refundable fare.
Cannot find the canceled reservation online?
Go to Manage Reservations and look in both "Current" and "Cancelled" tabs
Find the appropriate reservation and look for "Use Future Flight Credit"
After rebooking a canceled ticket, is there a new 24-hour window for fee changes?
No, the 24-hour flexible change only applies to the original /new booking and does not extend to rebooking of canceled / changed tickets.
United’s 24-hour cancellation / flexible booking policy
What if one leg is a refundable fare and another leg is non-refundable?
For a single ticket, the most restrictive fare rule applies to the entire ticket. So a refundable segment paired with a non-refundable segment makes the entire ticket non-refundable. Same with the change fee, the segment with the highest change fee applies to the entire ticket.
Archive thread: How to get residual/"future flight credit" from non-refundable flight {Archive}
Other related threads
Changing/Canceling/Replacing a ticket costing less than the change fee?
When re-booking 3-March 2020 purchased tickets, if the new ticket is cheaper you will receive an ETC (good for 24 months); starting April 2021, this is now a new form of FFC
If the new flight is priced higher, the customer may change for no change fee but must pay the fare difference. If the new flight is priced lower, the customer may change without paying a change fee but no residual value will be given.
- New tickets must be reissued within 24 months from original ticket date
- Rebooked travel must commence within 24 months from the original ticket issue date
Change Fees Are Gone For Good
For purchases starting 1-April, the lifetime of FFCs are returning to the traditional 12 months from purchase
In some cases of voluntary cancellations, FFCs may be convertible to ETCs (seems pre 1 August 2020 purchase is a factor) but this can only be requested on the phone and may take days/weeks. This may be a way to avoid the problem of "no residual credit" YMMV
Update 4 April 2020
We’re extending electronic certificates
To give you more flexibility when you travel, electronic certificates are now valid for 24 months from the date they were issued. This includes all currently valid electronic certificates and all new ones issued on or after April 1, 2020.
This policy change will automatically appear, but it may not be reflected everywhere right away. We’d appreciate your patience as we work to make that happen.
To give you more flexibility when you travel, electronic certificates are now valid for 24 months from the date they were issued. This includes all currently valid electronic certificates and all new ones issued on or after April 1, 2020.
This policy change will automatically appear, but it may not be reflected everywhere right away. We’d appreciate your patience as we work to make that happen.
This wiki discusses the for steps in using the "future flight credit" from a canceled non-refundable ticket. Note this is for the cancellation of an entire ticket -- the process is different for a partial flown ticket
- Note some tickets are non-changeable and have no residual value if not flown:
United's Basic Economy - Discussion, Q&A, ...
New UA/*A TATL -LGT Economy fare - first bag charged, no changes allowed
- Notify UA of the cancellation before the scheduled departure. An absolute must, if not done the entire value will be lost. But see note below about Travel Waivers
- Wait until you are ready to reschedule. When ready you will need to pay a change fee in new money - the fee varies and will depend on the fare rules of the original fare. Note in many cases there is no longer a change fee (BE and flights origining outside the USA may still have a fee)
- The new ticket must be purchased within 1 years of the original ticket's purchase date (pre-April 2020 purchases receive 2 year FFC)
- The new ticket will be good for 1 year from the exchange/re-scheduled date and travel must commence prior to the expiration of the original ticket
(an exception is if the new travel is just a date change, in this case, a new ticket may not be issued and initial purchase date will still prevail) - The new ticket must be for the same named traveler
- The portion of a ticket purchased with nonrefundable ticket credit will be nonrefundable regardless of the new ticket's fare rules
- The change fee requires payments of new funds and cannot be funded from the original ticket's value
- Any fare residual will issued as an ETC valid for
onetwo year.
- If an ETC is issued, all of the funds in it must be used within
- The ETC can be used by anyone.
- The
onetwo-year limitation only limits purchasing, not travel - travel may be outside the12-year limit. - There are no additional fees to use the ETC
- The credit voucher can only be used for UA/UX operated flights (workaround - UA Electronic Travel Certificate & Codeshares/partner flights)
To get maximum ETC (or new type FFC), an option is to pay the change fee (if any) and book the cheapest possible OW fare and throw that ticket away -- how to find that cheap fare, see Cheapest possible flight (How do I redeem this flight credit?)
If the reason for the change / cancellation is due to medical issues or death of a close relative, see Consolidated "Refunds/Cancellations Due to Illness/Death" Thread [Merged] for the process to get a refund of the change / redeposit fee.
Other cases for "free" changes are:
1) if the flight is covered on the day of departure by a waiver (WX related or other reasons). Note there may be a limited time frame for the change fee waiver.
2) or by an airline's change in schedule
What if it is 1 year from the original ticket purchase date and I am not ready to buy another United ticket using my canceled ticket's funds? Buy a throwaway ticket on the cheapest fare you can find. United will issue an Electronic Travel Certificate for any unused funds. That ETC is valid for one year from issuance (see https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/united-airlines-mileageplus/1369495-ua-electronic-travel-certificates-etc-general-q-new-combinability-policy-34.html). If you do this on the expiry date of your original ticket, you effectively extend the availability of the funds for an additional year at the cost of a throwaway ticket.
What if I purchase a refundable ticket with the credit from the non-refundable ticket, can I then cancel and get a refund? No, the funds from a non-refundable purchase remain non-refundable even if used to purchase a refundable fare.
Cannot find the canceled reservation online?
Go to Manage Reservations and look in both "Current" and "Cancelled" tabs
Find the appropriate reservation and look for "Use Future Flight Credit"
After rebooking a canceled ticket, is there a new 24-hour window for fee changes?
No, the 24-hour flexible change only applies to the original /new booking and does not extend to rebooking of canceled / changed tickets.
United’s 24-hour cancellation / flexible booking policy
What if one leg is a refundable fare and another leg is non-refundable?
For a single ticket, the most restrictive fare rule applies to the entire ticket. So a refundable segment paired with a non-refundable segment makes the entire ticket non-refundable. Same with the change fee, the segment with the highest change fee applies to the entire ticket.
Archive thread: How to get residual/"future flight credit" from non-refundable flight {Archive}
Other related threads
Changing/Canceling/Replacing a ticket costing less than the change fee?
How to get residual/"future flight credit" from non-refundable flight
#301
Join Date: Nov 2003
Location: Houston, TX USA
Programs: One or two :)
Posts: 129
My preferred outcome would be refund of course, but unlikely due to the fare bucket that it was originally purchased from. The flight change time is around 4 hours, but now one of the segments is back in Economy. As long as I can grab the total value of the ticket and use the value over the next 24 months as stated due to the travel waiver, this will work.
#302
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Oct 2001
Location: Austin, TX
Posts: 21,421
My preferred outcome would be refund of course, but unlikely due to the fare bucket that it was originally purchased from. The flight change time is around 4 hours, but now one of the segments is back in Economy. As long as I can grab the total value of the ticket and use the value over the next 24 months as stated due to the travel waiver, this will work.
We haven't gotten a lot of results back on how the DOT is viewing this -- they don't define what constitutes a "significant" change requiring a refund.
If you just want to use the travel credit in the next 24 months, and you're OK with a credit that can only be used for flights operated by United -- no partner airlines -- you can take an ETC now. That can be used by anyone, so it won't matter that your family can't join you on a rescheduled trip in December. You'd be able to save the surplus value for your next trip.
#303
Join Date: Nov 2003
Location: Houston, TX USA
Programs: One or two :)
Posts: 129
If you just want to use the travel credit in the next 24 months, and you're OK with a credit that can only be used for flights operated by United -- no partner airlines -- you can take an ETC now. That can be used by anyone, so it won't matter that your family can't join you on a rescheduled trip in December. You'd be able to save the surplus value for your next trip.
#304
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: SFO
Programs: UA 1K, AA Plat, AS MVPG
Posts: 287
I am sure this has been answered elsewhere -- sorry -- but I have a bunch of tickets I cancelled when the COVID waivers started. Now when I go online and look at them, I have the option to take a FFC or convert to an ETC. The ETC will be valid for two years from the date it is issued. I prefer ETCs but would rather wait to convert to maximize the time I have to use them. Which begs the question -- is there a deadline to convert to ETC? Could that go away at some point?
#306
Join Date: Feb 2000
Posts: 6,546
i was unable to get an ETC for past few weeks online for a ticket i didn’t really want anymore.
then, i made a modest change w/ a ~$10 add/collect.
few days later i noticed i now had the ETC option at cancellation.
then, i made a modest change w/ a ~$10 add/collect.
few days later i noticed i now had the ETC option at cancellation.
#307
Join Date: Jan 2020
Posts: 20
Does anyone know United's policy of refund or ETC for (involuntary/voluntary cancelled) partially flown tickets? e.g., If I make a round trip reservation from SFO-NRT., fly the outbound, but then cancelled the return, will I get any ETC for the residual value? If United cancels the return, or significantly changes the schedule, can I get a refund? (then fly back via a cheaper fare with ANA?)
#308
Moderator: United Airlines
Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: SFO
Programs: UA Plat 1.997MM, Hyatt Discoverist, Marriott Plat/LT Gold, Hilton Silver, IHG Plat
Posts: 66,861
Does anyone know United's policy of refund or ETC for (involuntary/voluntary cancelled) partially flown tickets? e.g., If I make a round trip reservation from SFO-NRT., fly the outbound, but then cancelled the return, will I get any ETC for the residual value? If United cancels the return, or significantly changes the schedule, can I get a refund? (then fly back via a cheaper fare with ANA?)
#309
Join Date: Jan 2020
Posts: 20
Beleive generally only FFC and 12 months from the original departure date to use. You will be bound by the original fare routes. If you try to go for a voluntary refund, the ticket will be recalculated as a one-way outbound and the reminder with be available -- this will again dependent on fare rules and you may get far less than what you might expect. If UA cancels and offers no alternative, then there is a chance of a refund.
#310
Moderator: United Airlines
Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: SFO
Programs: UA Plat 1.997MM, Hyatt Discoverist, Marriott Plat/LT Gold, Hilton Silver, IHG Plat
Posts: 66,861
If a refund situation does occur, it will depend of the fare construction to determine the refund. In the simple case of the outbound and return are that same fare, then the fare refund would be roughly 50% ( taxes / airport fees / .... will depend on circumstances, as they may not be symmetrical) . Short answer, there is no short answer.
#311
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Oct 2001
Location: Austin, TX
Posts: 21,421
If a refund situation does occur, it will depend of the fare construction to determine the refund. In the simple case of the outbound and return are that same fare, then the fare refund would be roughly 50% ( taxes / airport fees / .... will depend on circumstances, as they may not be symmetrical) . Short answer, there is no short answer.
#312
Join Date: Feb 2000
Posts: 6,546
Right: the fare refund itself is exactly what you might think: the unused pieces are refunded. The problem is, airfare is so complicated in the first place that it can be very challenging to figure out what the unused pieces are unless you planned for this in advance. I'm not aware of any foolproof way to determine the fare construction for a ticket after it's been purchased.
Fare Details: LAX DL X/NYC DL SJU 484.80 USD484.80END XF LAX4.5JFK4.5
Does a UA eticket receipt printed at the airport kiosk still have fare details?
#313
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Oct 2001
Location: Austin, TX
Posts: 21,421
Good question. I don't have one lying around to check, unfortunately.
#314
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: CLE, DCA, and 30k feet
Programs: Honors LT Diamond; United 1K; Hertz PC
Posts: 4,169
If you get an agent to print the ITIN on ATB stock though that will show the fare calc on the first page... but finding agents who know how to do this outside of an INVOL rebooking transaction seems to be getting fewer fewer.
Lincoln
#315
Join Date: Sep 2016
Location: SNA (home), LAX, BOM/PNQ, LHR
Programs: UA 1K/*G, Marriott Gold Elite, IHG Platinum, HHonors Silver
Posts: 965
Are we allowed to convert cancelled PNRs to ETCs/payment back to original card now? I'm hearing from co-workers that UA is allowing refunds to original form of payment or something like that? If so, there's around 3k worth of stuff I would love to have back in my possession and not with United, or at least in the form of ETCs. thanks
Edit: I see what Colin posted above, but I couldn't find any such options anywhere on my MP account. Where did you find this option? Thanks again guys!
Edit: I see what Colin posted above, but I couldn't find any such options anywhere on my MP account. Where did you find this option? Thanks again guys!