maxpulsfort

Hello,

I am having a meltdown here. I'm German and didn't know about the horrible customer service policies of United Airlines before. 1400€ per person are currently gone. Can someone please help us?!

Here's what happened:

In April 2016, 1 Day before our flight from Frankfurt to Lima, my girlfriend and I canceled our flights with UA (due to visa problems) via the UA service hotline. The operator assured us that, other than a cancellation fee (of ca. 150USD per person), the money for our flights would be credited for us within United Airlines so we could use it for flights at a later point in time. She gave each of us a confirmation code on which this was supposed to be bookable with expiry on February 16, 2017.

Now, as we would like to use the credit for booking flights for this year with UA, the codes do not work and can't be found in your system. The hotline also couldn't help us. The codes worked (we could see the cancellation) just after the cancellation by phone in 2016.

Unfortuantely we have never received a confirmation e-mail for the cancellation. Therefore, the only evidence we have are the codes/expiries written down by hand.

Complaints via customer care/hotline have yielded nothing so far (the operators can't see the confirmation codes in the system and the only answer from customer care was a standard letter addressed even to the wrong name).

What can we do?! We would be so happy if someone could help us!

emcampbe

When you canceled those flights, the funds remain in the same PNR (reservation). That's where the funds are. You need to use that same PNR and can rebook from there.

Do you have an MP account? If so, you can login on united.com (or your local version of United's website, either should work), and under the reservations tab on top, and under manage reservations heading, click on change or view reservations. If you have any current reservations on UA, that should know be shown ("current" tab should be highlighted yellow just above). There should also be a "canceled" tab I believe it is called (might be "past", can't remember). If you don't have current reservations, it will likely just default to that canceled tab).

If you click into the PNR you had, there should be a note that says something like "There are no flights associated with this itinerary" and also a button to change flights. From there, you will be able to search for the flights you want.

Note that to book the new flights, you will be charged a new fee to change (per person - whatever the change fee was), and have the entire amount (per person, so sounds like ~700 Euros in each reservation) to use (as opposed to having the change fee come out of the existing value). 'm a little confused because you list the amount you "lost" in Euros and change fee in $ - those should be in the same currency.

I also find the change flight tool broken most of the time - it may not show all available flights and often doesn't price them right, which is irrelevant by the time I try to actually confirm them because it often errors out at some point during the process. I suggest calling to use it.

If you don't have a MP aco...., I'm not sure if UA can look back based on the specific flights from before and find it there - I actually kind of doubt it. Without the PNR, you may be out of luck. However, if you have a copy of your original e-ticket, the PNR will be on their (in big black letters/numbers, on the top right). Call in with that to re-use.

Good luck.

sannmann

When did you make the original booking? Asking because a ticket is normally only good for one year.

maxpulsfort

The original booking was on February 16, 2016. Therefore it makes sense that the phone operator told us February 16, 2017 as an expiry date for the new booking.

Thanks for your input and help!

lincolnjkc

If the PNR doesn't work, if you have the ticket number (which should be shown on the eTicket receipt, itinerary after ticketing, also likely a credit card statement) they should be able to look it up via that means.

belfordrocks

I believe this is the date travel must commence on, not rebooking must be completed by.

MY-OTHER-BROTHER-"TED"

Does the OP only need to book his NEW itinerary by 2/16/2017 or does he need to complete his flights by that time? (Over & Back or just begin)??

maxpulsfort

We specifically asked for this in the cancellation-phonecall. The information from the operator was that rebooking can be done until then, so all future flights available in schedule would be possible (therefore approx. until end of 2017).

However, as of now it doesn't even matter. Either way it should be still possible for us to book now but we have no access to the credit whatsoever...

Kacee

Have you tried referencing the PNR (confirmation code) and/or e-ticket number in your communications with United? That's what the credit is stored under in UA's system.

And I'm sorry to tell you this, but UA agents are wrong all the time. The general rule is that a credit must be used within one year of original ticket issuance.

emcampbe

i beleive the re-issue needs to happen by then. But not necessarily travel complete.

sannmann

Max, how did you book the ticket? Was it through a travel agent, online travel agent (like Expedia), or through United.com? Does your ticket number start with 016?

WineCountryUA

Good questions

As other have explained, you have a "cancelled flight" ticket which is the credit you seek.

The confirmation code is not the code for the credit -- it is a reference code confirming the cancellation.

The original PNR (6 letter / number) is the item to refer to to get the credit.

If this is a UA /016 ticket stock, the step by step process is explained on FT in the wiki , including timeframes, of

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/unite...le-flight.html

maxpulsfort

Dear all,

first off, a great thank you to the incredible and quick support I'm getting here. Didn't expect that.

@sannmann:
1. Yes, I have booked the tickets via an online travel agency called OPODO. The cancellation happened directly with United though. Discussed the matter with OPODO already, they couldn't find anything helpful (like logs of cancellation etc.) in their system.
2. Also yes, all e-ticket numbers start with an 016

@WineCountryUA: According to the wiki, everything should be fine then. However, none of my confirmation codes (6 letters/numbers), also not the original one, can be found in the "reservations" section of the UA-website. Is there another place I should enter that? Up to now, the hotline people didn't find any entries for my original confirmation code either.

THANKS

mahasamatman

Welcome to FT, maxpulsfort!

It's possible the PNR has been recycled (it shouldn't be, but it's possible), so I would try giving them the ticket number when calling.

MSPeconomist

Have you tried using your ticket number starting with 016-?