iquitos

I use a Chase United card to buy an occasional drink on board. I recall buying a couple drinks in December when I flew a lot but none posted. One was on a Tucson trip and one on a flight from Kuwait where I really needed one it was so bad. Now two drinks have posted on dates in January when I have not flown. Called Chase concerned about fraud. They referred me to United. United blew me off directing me a a new to me receipt lookup tool I had already found which doesn't work that well unless you know what date and what flight number you bought the drink on. You can get to it via old reservations. With United the monkey is always on the customer's back and they let you know they won't lift a finger to help. Why don't I trust them? Is this posting delay normal?

mduell

Massive delays in getting them posted or a reciept. It sucks compared to the old paper reciept for expense purposes.

IAH-OIL-TRASH

Bought a breakfast sandwich on a 12/09 flight and charge showed up at Chase 12/28. Almost a three-week lag. Didn't recognize charge at first, but then figured it out by the dollar amount ($8.99).

iquitos

A timely receipt is a basic business practice. United makes it a game of 20 questions. Are those handheld card readers connected to something or are they just sales recording devices that have to be uploaded to a system at some later point?

emcampbe

It's far better then it used to be.

In the past, I'd had it typically take around 3 weeks, but a couple of times take 6 or even 8 weeks for an onboard purchase to show up. Now, it's closer to a couple to a few days. I believe the transactions are not processed real-time, but batched in the devices and then processed once on the ground somewhere when they are downloaded - most likely at a hub. My guess is there's a policy to get them done at least every couple of days or so in general. Obviously, in this case took quite a bit longer. Again, my experience is the time for these charges to post has decreased significantly over the last year or two.

You are certainly able to call Chase and get these charges reversed if you think there's fraud involved. They will probably do it even if you don't think it's fraud - you will probably lose a dispute if challenged, though given the small amounts involved, Chase will likely just forget about it for you, but could leave a black mark for you in the future. Given that you seem to know exactly what the charges are for, a dispute would be unethical, against the terms of your CC agreement (as you authorized the charges, and agreed to pay for them) and yes, illegal as it is fraud plain and simple on your part.

Check your CC agreement for details, but I doubt there is a time limit for merchants to post charges for items purchased. Even so, it is in their best interests to post charges as promptly as possible - for starters because they want to be paid for purchases as soon as possible, and they also don't want people disputing legitimate charges from long ago that they forgot about.

iquitos

I know how much a drink costs on United. I don't know what the charges are for yet. I have an eamil alert for United transaction on Jan 3 and 5 and corresponding pending charges on my Chase account. I have to wait and see if more post. Chase offered to dispute. Fraud is my concern. Most charges I make are posted real time.

WineCountryUA

They are not real time (yet) and need to be read/downloaded after the flight.

LHR Wannabee

I was just going to post the same question. I had a large number of inflight purchases at the beginning of December ($137.00) and they have still not posted. The transaction is not available online at United.com for in flight receipts either. I emailed Customer Care to ask when the charges would post so I would have a record of it for expenses for 2015 and received an email that the department was closed from December 21st to January 4th.

channa

If you don't know the flight number or simply don't want to use the UA receipt lookup tool, disputing the charge will typically result in the vendor sending a receipt to defend the charge.

iquitos

Are you suggesting the way to get a receipt is to dispute the charge? I don't see why I have to look up a receipt for something I paid for. The lookup tool is not straightforward. I found one but not the other. In the first place it should autofill for the entire reservation. I don't like playing 20 questions or doing work for the people who took my money. The risk is too great they will cheat. United is just negligent and I am supposed to figure a work around for them? They don't know the first thing about customer service.

Xyzzy

This 'tool' is almost on-par with the 'platepass' and other toll road 'services' that take weeks to post things. It makes submitting timely expense reports very difficult. At least for the UA system ne can attempt to work around it by taking a picture of the FA's device with the charge displayed and using that as a receipt.

iquitos

Today I got another $7.99 UNITED charge posted. Have not flown this year. Concerned United Mileage Plus lady referred me to Chase. Chase could not see detail on the charge since it is still pending.

xenophile

Was checking my CC statement and and saw charge for UA Inflt for $15.98. I haven't flown UA in months so was curious what the deal was. Called the refund line and they said it was for a drink purchase on an early April flight from IAH to DCA. That's so long ago I can't even remember if I actually did make this purchase, but I'm assuming I did. The CSR at UA I spoke to said her IT department said that inflight charges could sometimes be delayed by a few months.

This is ridiculous! Anyway, just needed to vent.

eeflyer

The longest I've experienced personally was about a month. But yes, these delays are out of hand since there is no paper trail nor is there any accountability for if a FA charged the right amount.