Double charged for 9/11 & Facility Fee?
 

I was checking my CC statement from November and noticed that for a recent flight I was charged once for the flight (including a $9 facility fee & a $5 September 11th fee), and then was charged again separately for each additional fee. I checked the flight invoice, and the amount for the flight was $460, then the aforementioned fees brought the total I was charged initially to like $475. I only ever book one ways, so it’s not like the fees were added because of a round trip.

Looking back at my statements, this has happened to me several times this year. On some flights I am refunded the fees, almost like they caught the error and refunded, but several times they didn’t and I was seemingly billed the facility charge and 9/11 fee twice. Is there an explanation for this? Probably talking about $75 total this year I was overbilled, but still....

This seems quite strange, and I don't have any comparable experiences.

Would you be willing to post some examples of a ticket receipt and the charges to your card from the same day?

The $9 for passenger facility fees would indicate a connection was involved (PFC is up to $4.50 per airport, with a max of 2 charges per one-way direction). The $5.60 TSA fee (not $5) is charged per one-way direction and generally does not vary based on number of connections (it was originally charged at $2.50 per airport with a max of $5.00 per one-way). However, if the connection is long enough (over 4 hours domestically), the flights will be treated as two one-way's and have two $5.60 TSA charges. However, that wouldn't change PFC charges (unless there was more than one connection involved).

and some details of the itin especially connection details. There are some corner cases where this may be correct.

With, e.g., >4h domestic connections there can be added 9/11 & facility fees, but I have never seen them charged to the card separately from the ticket (which, I think, is what OP is saying?).

Yes no problem, here is the most recent. You can also see other flights below which I was refunded the fee for. But I checked and was never refunded for this flight, as well as others since January of this year (as far back as I looked).

https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...700b8d93d0.png
https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...8862dd0ef6.png

Doesn't make sense to me that you were charged $8.99 for a $9 tax. There are no discounts when it comes to taxes, not even one penny.

Assuming the charge descriptions are clickable, does it reveal the ticket number when you do that, and does that match the ticket number on the receipt every time?

Is the receipt you're showing the one you got after ticketing on Nov 23? If yes, can you request to be sent a new one to see if the extra charges appear on there?

The credit back might just be the Amex Plat $200 airline free credit that is kicking in. Did you check if you maxed out your $200 allowance?

The added small dollar amounts from UA make no sense whatsoever.

The $8.99 charge is hard to interpret.

You've not done something else in addition to purchasing a revenue ticket, have you? (For example, making and/or cancelling an award ticket, paying for seat selection.)

Could the $8.99 be a price lock fee? You would have had to do this specifically and then go back and buy the ticket later however.

The $8.99 charge feels like an inflight wi-fi charge instead of a ticket fee. If you click through each charge, it should give you a 016 number and the description of the charge. The $5.60 charge should give you a ticket number, which you can check back to your reservations (a domestic award ticket?).

Yeah, I'm wondering if it might be some sort of ancillary fee (that just happens to have posted on the same date as a ticket). I've been flying United as my primary carrier since I moved to the US 15 years ago, and never ever seen either of these fees charged separately, nor have I ever seen them double-charged. The only thing that comes close is I've seen (commonly) farelock fees be authorized more than once, but even then, the charges have never posted incorrectly. I was thinking maybe in-flight food or beverage, which one can forget about if they don't charge right after the flight (which still happens on occasion even with the iPhones...before the iPhones, I remember commonly having so much time between a purchase and it actually charged, that I at times couldn't recall what the charge was for since it had been weeks), but I think onboard food is all even dollar amounts.

I also concur with some of the previous posts on here, about it maybe being a farelock charge, wifi charge, or something of that nature. Also good advice to see if the ticket number appears in the details of the charge (don't know about AMEX, but my cards via Chase always include the ticket number in the details....I believe it should no matter the card), and seeing if it matches the ticket number. Going from there, you can probably also call UA, let them know you have a charge you don't recognize, and if you provide them with the 016 number referenced, they should be able to give you details on what its for.

I know Houston is the merchant account they use for charging web reservations, but they could use a different account for other types of purchases. Do these in-flight purchases also post from the same merchant "UNITED AIRLINES HOUSTON TX"? I never venture behind the curtain, so I'm ignorant about this, but I've seen different merchant accounts for other types of purchases from UA.

If you are certain that this is not an ancillary fee for something such as WiFi, why not ask UA to explain the fees?

The charges are pretty weird (especially the second $5.60 one). I don't think it'll help, but a couple of things that you can try:

1) Open the itinerary on united.com and have the website email you a copy of the eTicket receipt. That will force it to show (and email) the most up-to-date version of the receipt, which may be a cached old version until you do that. Certain ancillary charges will show in text beneath the main fare calculation (it's easy to miss in the sea of text there).

2) If you click on the transaction in your Amex statement you'll usually see a ticket number. Does that ticket number match the ticket number for your itinerary, or is it different? That might provide a clue. It may be worth searching your email for that number if it's different from your itinerary's ticket number. If you want, you can also share the first 6 digits of the ticket number and that will indicate whether it's an actual ticket number or an EMD which is used for ancillary fees. (The first 6 digits doesn't provide any personally identifying information.)