spc354

I had booked a trip EWR- ALG-EWR 18th July- 26th July, using United miles. Flight was routed EWR-BOS (UA), BOS-IST-ALG (TK), ALG-FRA (LU), FRA-DUB (Air Lingus), DUB-EWR (UA).
Seeing how United was cancelling flights out of EWR everyday, I decided not to take a chance and decided to cancel the ticket and buy a paid ticket for the trip on Air France (JFK-CDG-ALG-CDG-EWR)) for the same days July 18-26. When I called United to cancel the award ticket, I was directed to use the messaging service to do so. I did, and after providing my flight details and MileagePlus information I was told that my miles would be redeposited to my account and the taxes and fees would be credited to my Amex Plat Card, and I would receive confirmation of cancellation vi email. I have screenshots of the entire conversation saved.

Interestingly, my fear of United cancelling flights came true and I got an email on 18th morning that the first leg of my trip EWR-BOS was cancelled.

Now as of today I received no emails, no miles redeposited and no taxes and fees refunded.

When I checked my MileagePlus account it did not even show the trip.

I called United Reservations again and was again directed to the messaging option. Then began the nightmare. I have been on the conversation for 5+ hours as we speak now. Bounced around to three different agents after initial round with the UA Chatbot. Everyone has asked for the same information again and again, put me on long holds and I still have no resolution.
I am normally a SkyMiles person (lifetime Gold with 2Million+ Miles. But I have no status with United, even as I have done multiple paid business class long haul trips in Polaris and most recently on Air India. All of them were fraught with problems, but I had accumulated some miles. So I decided to use them up. I had booked a trip to Tabriz, returning from Teheran using miles for May, but United cancelled the outbound segments. So that was a bust. It was then i decided to use the miles for Algeria and then the current situation has developed.

I have proof (screenshots of the message conversation) that I cancelled the trip on July 17, and United agreed to redeposit my miles and refund the taxes and fees. but it hasn't done so. Now it is not even confirming the cancellation on the 17th. I have been on the messaging link for close to 6 hours now, with no results. The last individual I spoke to was not transferring me to a supervisor as I repeatedly requested, and has now gone silent!
What can I do now? Any suggestions to reach someone higher up at UA customer service who can be of help?
Any ideas will be much appreciated.
Frustrated,
Satya (spc354)

IADdelayed

Call and don't accept the messaging option so you can speak to an actual person?

spc354

Thanks. Doing that already.
Satya

IADdelayed

Then my bad. The way I read it, sounded like you were calling, but then switching to messaging to (try to) get it sorted out.

jsloan

Don't call reservations. Call the MileagePlus Service Center: https://www.united.com/ual/en/us/fly...tact-info.html ( 1-800-421-4655 ). They're the ones who can reinstate the miles, and they should be able to enqueue the refund for taxes and fees, but if that goes sideways for some reason, you can do that yourself at https://www.united.com/refunds .

cfischer

if your call doesn't get you anywhere, file a USDOT complaint and attach the chat screenshot. Should be very straightforward to sort this out. I would not spend more than 15 mins trying to resolve this before reaching out to the DOT.

Steve M

Why wouldn't you just cancel it yourself online or in the app?

cre95

Not sure I follow. You say that you cancelled your trip and were told you would receive an email confirming your cancellation plus a refund of the miles and taxes and fees.
You then note that you checked your account and that the trip doesn't show up.

Isn't that saying that the trip was indeed cancelled per your own request via your chat session? Assuming so, the pending issue would be to get your miles redeposited and fees refunded.

Is that what you are trying to call / chat to have them do at this point? Or are you still debating with them whether your trip was cancelled or not?

IAH-OIL-TRASH

"Cancel this reservation" is an option in app or online under "manage reservation" and I've never had it not work. 10 seconds and done.

halls120

This. I've never had a problem dealing with MPSC. They have always been able to unsnarl issues with mileage credits and refunds.

spc354

Of course, I tried that first. Didn't work!

Yes. It appears trip was not cancelled.

bdw1120

You sure you called/messaged the real United customer service, not some scam number you found via search engine?

eng3

Just to note, I've had it say it needs to be "manually processed" by an agent. Often it is when I mix it credits with money. Then they often forget to refund PP too.
However, it is usually all resolved within a week or so.

I agree, CS seems to be limited. They often send me over to the refunds form. Which seems to work, eventually. They do contact MP on my behalf to get PP or miles back but the email is usually pretty responsive. (Not sure if responses are sorted by status)