Trying to figureout what going to happen with a trip of mine.

Orginal ticket was a non-refundable MCI-ord-SFO then SFO-MCI. Had a 3 1/2 hour MX delay on the ORD-SFO. Missed my training meeting at airport. So it turned into a trip in vain. I was able to reschedule with same flights one week later to do training. That training session ended up getting canceled because of Corona so no longer needed to go to SFO. So I called United Premier desk and ask if I could change the flight to an MCI-LAS trip for weekend of easter. They was able to change it to a P fare because flights had gotten alot cheaper by then. Now that trip is no longer a possibility with vegas casino hotels shutdown.

My question is if United ends up canceling flight in April will i get refund, full travel credit, or travel credit less change fee because orginal ticket was before they were offering free change fees?

 

A while ago, someone on FT remarked that UA is an airline for only experts; novice customers will have tough time and lose. This thread certainly highlights the wisdom of that comment.

 

Any tickets booked through a TA before travel must be taken up by the TA. UA doesn't even know what you paid for the ticket.

 

Thank you for your responses.

Are you saying that the United agent lied to me? If I would just told her to cancel my return that I could have request and received a cash refund later.

 

Cxl an upgraded reservation using +Points to LHR online. No problem. When I tried using the confirmation number to rebook, I could not make it show upgrade availability. Is there another way to do it or I need to call?

 

Lying implies intent; I can't speak to that. The agent may just have been mistaken. But, I can promise you that being in the middle of a roundtrip flight, and having your return trip canceled, doesn't somehow invalidate your ticket for a (prorated) refund.

If you accepted credit toward a future UA flight, they're claiming that they will refund it when the ticket expires. I don't think anybody really knows the mechanism for that right now, including UA. If you accepted alternative transportation, then your ticket is used and no longer eligible for refund.

In general, searching for upgrade space and booking travel should be two separate activities, as United's upgrade search doesn't work well at all.

Activate Expert Mode, if you haven't already (there's a board thread on this). I do one-way searches in each direction to save time. If you're connecting, just search for the overwater leg on its own. Look for space in the PZ inventory bucket, or PN if you're GS.

Once you have the flights that you want, do a new search, from origin to destination, round-trip if applicable, as if you were going to purchase a new fare; go through to the confirmation page (but don't buy it). Note the price. Then, start over from within the reservation you're trying to change and select the same flights. Check the price. There are multiple reports of the wrong price appearing when you start your search via the change flights / use flight credit screen.

If the price is correct, go ahead and try to make the reservation; if it succeeds, then once ticketing occurs you can go back in and apply your PlusPoints. If any step fails, you're going to want to call.

Good luck!

 

If we have Z tickets that I would presume are non-refundable, and request a refund for a cancelled flight, and UA refuses to give the refund, how should we approach it?
1. Go through the CC company that paid for the tickets
2. File DOT complaint
3. If high enough on the food chain at UA, push the request to a higher level within the company
4. Abdicate and hope that UA and flights exist in the future to use the many thousands of dollars now in limbo.

My thought is to try #4 first, hoping that UA recognizes customer loyalty but if you are fighting for your life......
My actual preference will be #1 since UA did not provide the product paid for by the CC. I might be quite naive on this as well.

I am glad I didn't waste my money on travel insurance

 

I really, really, really wish SkyTeam had better airlines. Having DL bring back a Texas hub would be icing on the cake. UA has been trying to fire me for years; I've resisted for four reasons: (a) DL's C+ "upgrade" policy is not nearly as good as UA's E+ policy, (b) UA has more flights into Texas, so if they can't get me to AUS, they can generally get me close enough to drive; (c) getting Diamond status without meeting the spending requirement would likely mean a lot of trips on airlines I don't really want to fly; and (d) DL gives fewer upgrade certificates at Diamond than UA does at 1K, and there's no public inventory available to know when your upgrade would clear. (I'm not interested in waitlisting). These most recent behaviors, though, are really making me wonder if I shouldn't take DL up on a status match.

UA is trying very hard not to give refunds to anybody. If they cancel your flights, they will attempt to leave the credit on the ticket for future use. If you ask for a refund, I suspect they will deny it -- if you find that to be an issue, I suggest you file a DOT complaint. If the credit isn't used during its validity, then they're promising to refund it, although I suspect they will be extending the validity period to try to keep from giving refunds. They will not charge you a change fee for any flight that they cancel.

If you cancel it, you would be covered under the current waivers, as there is a blanket change fee waiver. It wouldn't be refundable, but you would be able to use the credit on the ticket until it expires. However, check your fare rules for MCI-LAS. I suspect they will include language that says that the fare's residual value is ignored. That means that if you use the credit toward a less expensive flight, they will not refund the difference, even as a travel credit; they will just keep it. They added that language to most (all?) of their nonrefundable fares on March 2, and since you changed origin / destination, you were definitely re-fared, and thus the new fare rules would apply.

 

Just called united and was pleasantly surprised about the wait time (the machine said the wait was greater than 60 minutes but I was connected in 20 minutes with no status on United).

We had a trip departing March 27 to London and a return trip from Paris on April 6. As of now, it seems like the Paris flight is cancelled due to the major reductions in April. We also applied upgrades to all segments (miles + copay).

The friendly agent informed me that I can get a travel voucher for use rebooking by August 17, 2020 (we originally booked the trip on August 17, 2019) for travel by March 27, 2021.

OR I can call within 25 hours of departure to get a full refund (including all the miles and copays).

Has anyone heard of this rule before (calling 25 hours before departure to get a refund)? Or is this a new rule that they're going to implement soon?

 

So, personally, I would start with #2 , then #1 . UA hasn't shown any indication that they understand customer loyalty. If they did, they wouldn't be trying to hold their customers hostage. I would not bother with #3 unless you have personal contacts at the executive level. I'm pretty confident that this policy comes from on high; there aren't some lower-level managers running rogue here. And for "many thousands of dollars," #4 seems risky, because while travel credits will probably be honored during a Chapter 11 reorganization, they might not be -- and they definitely wouldn't be honored during Chapter 7 liquidation. You'd be an unsecured creditor, and I really doubt UA has enough unencumbered assets for unsecured creditors to get much of anything.

I suspect the agent was confused. The 25 hour number sounds suspiciously like the short-lived schedule change policy -- for about four days, UA had a policy where if your schedule changed by more than 25 hours, you could get a refund. They've since amended that to 6 hours, but are not issuing refunds; instead, they're giving travel credit, and then they're promising a refund if you're unable to use the ticket prior to its expiration.

Call back within 24 hours of departure, to be sure, but don't be surprised if the new agent has no idea what you're talking about.

Miles + copay are refundable, but they may charge a redeposit fee based upon your status.

 

My travel schedule from Norway to Austin got cancelled and I have a paid ticket from Killeen to Memphis in April.
I'll attend the United Family Day in SFO again so I'm changing everything to October instead.
As I'm trying to "change my flight" from GRK-MEM to GRK-SFO the only message I'm getting is:

We are unable to process your request. Please see the message below for details.

• Subtotals NOK 80 and NOK 9 for the XF tax do not match.

I'm even changing to other cities and MEM too, but I still get the same message.
I'd rather not call UA, but rectifying online just isn't working for me.
Any thoughts?

 

It appears that if you want to cancel a flight for credit, you do not get seat fees back as credit, they are lost?

 

Seat fees are refundable. You may need to call.

 

Try again Monday; UA is notorious for having IT issues on the weekends. If that doesn't work, I'm afraid calling is likely your only option.

 

PSA

If UA cancels your flight and don�t provide an alternative within arriving within a 2 hour time frame, and refuse to provide a refund, file a dispute with your credit card issuer under �services not received.� You really have little to lose other than the act of filing the dispute and a minimal risk of UA blacklisting you/confiscating miles (risk is there but no data points confirming). If you win the dispute you get your money back. If you lose the dispute you still have the UA travel credit.

If UA is not even going to offer alternative travel arrangements at all and no refund, file the dispute and a DOT complaint as UA is outright violating their own contract with passenger.