No Refunds When a Flight is Canceled?
 

I just got off the phone with United and they said they do not have to give refunds, it is a choice when the cancel a flight.


Just about two months ago, United canceled a flight that my wife, daughters and I were on. Due to uncontrollable circumstances. The circumstances were not told, and the only option was to flight out of Boston the next day instead of Providence, RI. I declined the rebooking, used miles and flew on American that night. My wife said we never got our money back and she had no credit on her United account. Same for me. So I emailed and received a phone call follow up.

I was told that no refund was ever requested so I never received my money. I explained the airport situation but the woman told me because our tickets were non-refundable we are not elligible to receive refunds but she would request one. I asked, so I paid United money, you then chose not to provide a service and instead kept my money?

In the end she made a request to process refund. I used to fly ~90k on United a year and was briefly 1k. I have had flights canceled and always received a refund or credit. Same with numerous other airlines, maybe its a new policy or money grab scheme for United to charge and not provide service?

I'm confused. At the original cancellation, did you ask for a refund? the normal process is for the ticket to stay in place for rebooking. This is not new and is standard for airline.

What did you communication to UA at the cancellation? Did you assume there would be a refund without a request?

You should still be able to get the refund for the cancellation if you have not waited too long -- 1 year from date of original booking?

When you buy a non-refundable ticket on a flight, you can get it refunded if the flight is cancelled.

Right.

OP -- UA hasn't changed any policies. You just got a MOLA -- Mistaken or Lying Agent. If she processed your refund, great; you're all set. If not, call back and try again. As long as you explain the situation clearly -- "We were booked on flight XYZ, it was cancelled, UA could not re-accommodate us" -- you'll get a refund.

Refunds do not happen automatically, though -- that's standard across the industry.

If you do need to contact them again, keep it simple: "My flight was cancelled, and I would like a refund." Leave out whatever happened at the airport, the previous agent, and any other drama. All they need to know to give you a refund is that your flight was cancelled and that they didn't accommodate you otherwise using that ticket.

Per Rule 24) E) 3) of the United Contract of Carriage, you are eligible for a refund upon request if you were not re-accommodated after the cancelation of your original ticketed flight.

Per Rule 27) A) 1) c) of the CoC, a request for an involuntary ticket refund shall be made no later than the expiration date of the ticket. In the case of an unused ticket, this would indeed be 1 year from the date the ticket was issued or most recently reissued.

This sounds like ships passing in the night.

There is no question about a refund, but it must be requested. That is true of AA and DL as well.

On the off chance that the refund does not arrive, it is an easy chargeback as well.

OP- my cancelled flights/tickets remain on my account in the Manage Reservations sections - when I make my next reservation I call up and they waive the re-booking/change fee (as they should) and apply the funds. If you want a refund, you have to call UA and ask for refund to the card charged or credit to your "wallet."

If the OP/family did not request a refund at the time and instead the rebooking was made there's a decent chance the rebooked segments were seen as a no-show in the system. UA would try to avoid paying a refund for that on a nonrefundable fare as the passenger "missed" the flight.

I could easily see this being what the paper trail in the system shows.

Chargebacks have a short time limit. Since the flight was two months ago, there's a very good chance the OP is already past that.

easy. Quick form filled out at the DOT wesite ... refund will come very quickly. You gave UA a chance and you got a MOLA ... you can either waste more time and call again or you fill out the DOT form and the refund will come very promptly.

And according to the OP, the same agent filed the refund request. There is the open issue if the OP was rebooked and if the OP missed the rescheduled flight. Plus did the OP made their first request for a refund within a year of original purchase.

It's really best to make the refund request immediately.

Same thing if you just cancel a refundable flight without requesting a refund at the same time - if you let the cancelled itinerary just sit there, you may have a hard time if you call later to get it refunded.

This.

If one is not relying on the airline to re-accommodate, call the airline right away and request for refund on the spot. On a recent occasion, when the flight (last of the day) was cancelled, I didn't feel like waiting on long lines at the gate areas to be re-accommodated - it was the first flight of my itinerary with a TATL connection, with a quick turnaround on the return meant my entire original itinerary would have been missed anyway. I called the airline instead of dealing with GAs, and before I left the concourse, my refund was processed. The phone agent didn't see the cancellation on her end initially - wasn't updated on her terminal until a few minutes of waiting.

Seems like I was not clear. Our accounts had no credits as we have received in the past and no refund was issued as requested almost 2 months ago.