paule123

For cancellations after 24 hours, does United still let you use the value of a nonrefundable ticket for a future flight (minus the $200 change fee)? The "cancel" option on the reservation screen says:
"This reservation has no refundable value if cancelled. A refund will not be credited."

The "change flights" option gives me an error message.

It's a domestic L fare and the fare rules on the receipt say:
Fare Rules:
Additional charges may apply for changes in addition to any fare rules listed.
NONREF/0VALUAFTDPT/CHGFEE
Cancel reservations before the scheduled departure time or TICKET HAS NO VALUE.

WineCountryUA

Confused website?

Have you flown any portion of the itin?

paule123

Have not flown any portion of the itin. Booked ticket Nov 20 2016, flight is tomorrow Jan 5.

ETA: Are the policies listed in the top wiki post here posted anywhere on united.com? Their refund policies page sure doesn't have that level of detail ...

WineCountryUA

Cancel before departure or you are out of luck.

Not in a single location. In the Carriage of Contract, in the fare rules, in the ETC T&Cs, ...

Is there a particular one you need?

The value of the residual after cancellation, ie the cancellation fees and terms, are in the fare rule which you probably did not grab as you booked (few do).

paule123

Yeah, understand that. It's a $300 ticket so not much win here considering the $200 fee. Wait til T-30 mins for a freak snowstorm or mechanical?

IAH-OIL-TRASH

To be clear, you actually pay United $200 more ("new money") to get use of what you paid originally. The change fee is not deducted from what you paid. Yes, you can wait until just before departure for a miracle before cancelling.

paule123

Pressed the cancel button, next screen says:

Would be nice if they put that verbiage on the screen before you hit the cancel button and in the cancellation confirmation email which simply says "Your reservation is not eligible for a refund"

IAH-OIL-TRASH

Purchasers are informed of that during purchase of ticket. One has to check a box acknowledging acceptance of the terms of purchase, in which non-refundability is explicitly stated. A lot of people choose not to read the terms.

BZRORG

I purchased a RT international ticket for my wife that we had to cancel for various reasons.

Is it possible to reuse the residual value after paying the change fee for someone other than her?

She has been unable to fly for almost a year and the 1 yr anniversary of the ticket is approaching next month.

would it be possible to book a refundable ticket, cancel it, and use the ETC or whatever they give to book a ticket for myself?

WineCountryUA

Yes, you can use the residual value for another person but there is an extra step -- you first need to purchase a very cheap ticket for a flight anywhere for the original flyer and the unused amount will be issued as a voucher that can then be used by anyone. See the thread's wiki for the steps to do this.

If there is certifiable medical reason, you may be able to get an 100% refund.
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/unite...ad-merged.html

blueheronNC

Wife and I have to cancel our upcoming trip and we have tickets under the same PNR. For using the available credit, would both of us have to fly on the new reservation being booked (in order for the value to flow with the original ticketed passenger), or could just one of us use the credit at any given time (say, if I wanted to use the value for my own travels, pay the $200 so that I can use my ticket value, and at some later date she does the same for herself even though we had been on the same PNR). How is this handled from a split/voucher standpoint? If that doesn't work, would the approach be:

1) Split the PNR right now, and then cancel before the original travel date, so that we each have our separate unlinked values to use (would this work?)

2) Cancel, then book an inexpensive trip for the two of us on the same PNR and throw away that value so that we're issued a voucher for the remaining value that can be used by anyone?

WineCountryUA

While one PNR, it is two tickets and that is all that matters. When the tickets get split out of the PNR does not matter. The ticket can only be used by the original traveler (see the wiki for more). If credit is not completely used by the original traveler, a ETC (voucher) will be issued and that ETC then can be used by anyone. (See section in the wiki on finding cheap throwaway tickets.)

blueheronNC

Thanks for this response. A few years ago I had canceled value on AA - two tickets but one PNR, and was told that if I wanted to use the value both travelers would have to fly together (i.e., it wasn't enough that I was the original traveler one of the tickets, we both still had to fly together because that's how the original reservation was situated when cancelled).

WineCountryUA

Not true for UA. The tickets can be separated at anytime.

jvoight34

Hello,

I searched but could not find this in previous threads--I'm sorry if this is a duplicate.

I currently have a roundtrip reservation (K and V class) and my plans have changed and I only need one leg.

If I try to cancel one leg, the website and the help desk told me that I would be charged $200 and would be refunded $197 in the form of a voucher. I asked them why the voucher could not be applied to the change fee; they said that was in the T&C, and also that they have no way to provide these T&C to me any more.

If I try to cancel the whole reservation, it tells me that I will receive $0.

The amusing part to me is that I am just trying *not* to use a part of something that I purchased. I guess that if I don't show up for the outbound leg (I only need the return), the whole reservation will be cancelled.

Any interaction I have with UA I enter into it with the expectation of a certain amount of frustration, so I don't expect anything here, but in the off chance... can someone help?

JV