hightide

I have a RT United award for:

CGK - DFW
MSY - BUR (excursionist perk)
LAX - NRT - CGK originally booked NH175 and NH835

I got a flight cancellation for the LAX-NRT leg as NH175 will no longer be flying. United automatically re-booked me on NH 125 arriving HND but it arrives after NH835 is scheduled to depart! A United rep called me telling me that I'm eligible for a free change due to my cancelled flight.

As I'm not 100% sure of this August 2020 trip right now, my plan is to wait until the last minute as this change qualifies me for a free cancellation.
Will I be able to cancel the MSY-BUR and LAX-CGK portions but keeping the CGK-DFW portion intact in the last minute?
If I cancel the return portion of the itinerary before flying CGK-DFW, will United cancel the whole itinerary, refund me the 80K miles then re-book me for CGK-DFW or will they just simply cancel the return and refund 40K miles?

jsloan

Because this is an involuntary change, the rules against refunding a return award ticket shouldn’t apply, and you should be able to get them to cancel the excursionist perk and return flight and return half the mileage.

However, note that you’re taking a risk with this approach. UA can’t force NH to open award space on any of their flights, so if they run out of award space from Tokyo to Jakarta, you may have a hard time resurrecting the ticket if it turns out that you do want to fly it.

hightide

Thanks for the feedback ^ I'm aware that I'm taking a risk. Looking at LAX-CGK one way flights, they are about $400, so very reasonable. If it turns out revenue flights are not reasonable, I can always cancel the whole itinerary.

IamHungry

What would happen if I take outbound flight but decided not to take inbound flight? Do I forfeit miles or do I get miles back if I pay fee?

Mwenenzi

Just book the award flights as one ways.

IamHungry

Trip is already booked as roundtrip.

WineCountryUA

You forfeit the miles, no voluntary refunds on partially taken awards.

You can repurposed the return for a later date but it needs to be within the fare rules of the original ticket -- it may not be possible to change the award regions

MrOCTeckels

According to the 1K agent I spoke with today, there is a further restriction that the ticket must be in the same direction, not just same regions. The return ticket in question was West Coast US to East Coast US, and the agent said it had to be used in that direction.

I'll report back on whether this is true, if I get the opportunity (fingers crossed that the flyer is up for another transcon).

Most important lesson: buy awards as one ways

jsloan

I strongly suspect a different agent would have a different response.

I've actually had a ticket A-B (South Asia), C-D (Excursionist Perk, North America), E-A (South Asia), where, after flying A-B and C-D, I had to change E-A to A-B. The very same two cities I started with, going from origin to destination. I was a little nervous that the agent would refuse to help me since my ticket was obviously not in the spirit of the Excursionist Perk, but she didn't bring it up and I was able to make the change.

eng3

If I book a RT award ticked, fly the outbound leg, can I cancel the return? I tried on the website both before and after the outbound and got an error. I called after the outbound and they said I cant get a redeposit because I use part of it already (but hey can still cancel it and allow me a year to use it)

In the end, because there was a previous schedule change on the return flight, he made an "exception" for me

jsloan

In the sense that you mean -- "redeposit" -- the answer is no. You can cancel it and then call back and change to a different day / city pair / whatever, but you can't put half of the miles back into your account.

Before flying the outbound, it's possible to make this change, but you might need fresh availability on the flight that you want to keep.

An involuntary cancellation does allow you to get a redeposit that a voluntary cancellation would not.

WineCountryUA

Without a schedule change, the rules are very clear

SPN Lifer

With an uncertain return, consideration should be given to redeeming two separate one-way award tickets.
https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/32644911-post176.html (Numbering / lettering format edited).

This timeless advice about paid tickets would seem to apply differently to MileagePlus award redemptions.

B747SP

In some cases, you can recover some miles by changing the return to a short segment. For example, changing an RT transatlantic return to an intra-Europe segment and then abandoning that segment. It depends on the fare rule, the availability, and the value of recovered miles vs. the change fees.

jsloan

Yes, the calculus is different. This is what I'd recommend:

1. If you're taking advantage of the Excursionist Perk, book a round-trip
2. If you are not subject to redeposit fees (GS/1K) or expect to have your plans solidified more than 30 days prior to travel, book one-ways
3. If you are traveling in a no-change-fee zone (USA), book one-ways
4. If refunding only one leg is a possibility, book one-ways.
5. If, within 30 days of departure, you are more likely to want a full redeposit / change both legs than you are to change either leg individually, book a round-trip
6. Otherwise, book one-ways.