Furby

I had an award flight cancelled by a partner airline. I called and asked for a full refund of miles and fees to my account and credit card, was told this would happen. Instead I got a flight credit which is of no use to me. The last agent I spoke to me told me that this will eventually be turned into a proper refund. Has anyone experienced such a thing?

This is a flight operated wholly within the EU and is therefore covered by EU which requires a refund in these circumstances.

Any thoughts in whether to wait this out and see if UA eventually sort this refund out? If so, how long to wait? Any other suggestions?

fumje

So your flight credit shows the miles and fees still attached to the reservation? I was not aware that could actually be done.

In any case, I advise calling again to request the refund again. It shouldn't be too hard, but sometimes you get an agent that doesn't know what to do / hit the right buttons. It isn't going to fix itself, though.

cfischer

I am confused. So this was a 016 United ticket on a partner airline. The operating carrier cancelled the flight and you asked for a refund. That is a very simple thing to do ... just HUCA. There is no such thing as a flight credit for award tickets, the base fare is zero. Taxes are always refundable. So what exactly happened here?

Furby

Yes, this was a United award ticket for travel on Croatia Airlines. Croatia Airlines cancelled the flight so I asked for a full refund of fees to my credit card and miles to my account.

I made the request Saturday, was told the refund would happen within 24 hours. That did not happen. I called again Sunday was told by that agent it would definitely be refunded. Shortly after that I received an email notifying me of a flight credit identifying the miles and fees on the email. I contacted them right back and was told it was normal to get a refund voucher email prior to the redeposit but that it would be refunded as requested.

I agree that this is not exactly a difficult request. I have never had any issues getting a straightforward refund before so doubt this is being handled correctly. But what do I do now several agents just seem to be feeding me bad information.

Mwenenzi

Are you calling UA or Croatia Airlines?

WineCountryUA

Let this sit for a few days unless you need the miles now for anew booking. Suspect it will sort itself out and save your time for something else. Airlines are poor at real time refunds. Sometimes it works, sometime it takes a bit.

Furby

UA

Probably good advice! It makes me mad that a simple process is made ridiculously complex.

fumje

If you look up the PNR on United's site, what do you see?

It isn't normal to receive a flight credit email for an award refund / redeposit, but in the event you don't have an immediate need for the miles / card credit, I suppose no harm waiting 7 days.

Furby

I see a travel credit. I think the agent just went ahead and cancelled the flight and issued a credit.

WineCountryUA

a credit for what?

IAH-OIL-TRASH

I rarely see refunds to my credit card in 24 hours, plus it's the weekend. I think if you wait, you'll eventually see it.

Furby

A credit for the miles and $

I agree about the credit card, but the miles should be re credited very quickly, at least that is my experience in the past.

WineCountryUA

80-90% of the time, yes but not always
However have never heard of FFC with miles but UA has been making changes to FFC system recently
in the past it was possible to cancel but not refund since there may be a redeposit fee for some voluntary cancellations, this may be the new version of that

fumje

As for WineCountryUA, I have also never heard of FFC with miles + fees credit, but apparently they've made some system "innovations".

Typically the miles redeposit pretty much instantly, and the card refund could be a few days, but it shouldn't show as a credit when you look up the PNR.

I think you still need someone to take time and fix it — seems like you've been getting agents trying to brush you off (and lower their call duration, probably). But again, if you can wait, maybe it is properly in the refund queue and someone will deal with it behind the scenes.

BOSskier

I can't remember all the details that led up this, but I recall having this happen to me a few times. I was given the option when I could no longer take the trip and took the credit because since the miles weren't being redeposited, I was avoiding paying the redeposit fee at the time. I knew there'd be a change fee when I went to book a trip in the future with the credit but was content at the time to just defer paying more cash out of pocket until I needed the miles. (This was several years ago when I didn't have status or was silver and fees were higher.)

In the end, I believe I eventually just called and asked to have the miles redeposited.