What does "refundable fare" exactly mean?
 

I have / had a Y fare from BAH to SAT on July 15, I could not make the flight and did not inform United. The itinerary has been removed from .bomb. What should I expect when I call? I have read the CoC and can not make heads or tails of what will happen to the $3K I dropped on this flight. I am not after a refund of my money, only a ticket home.

Cheers

kd5zex

When you miss your flight "unintentionally", UA usually has the courtesy to reschedule you, but you should report on the same time or some time sooner than 4 days. When you call, you better have a good reason for missing a flight 4 days ago and just respond to it now.

For refundable fare, if it was a one way ticket, you could refund (cash) the ticket back before travel commence. I believe your ticket was a round trip ticket, so I am not sure how it would work. But nevertheless, when you miss your flight without making prior arrangement, it's like forfeiting the ticket.

Here's the fare rule:
[BK CODE]
Y -

[PENALTY]
CANCELLATIONS ANY TIME CANCELLATIONS PERMITTED. NOTE - -- EXCHANGE - CHANGE
TO 1ST TICKETED FLIGHT / WHOLLY UNUSED TICKET -- RESIDUAL VALUE
MAY BE REFUNDED OR APPLIED TOWARD PURCHASE OF NEW TICKET AT CURRENT
FARE LEVELS ANY DIFFERENCE IN FARE/TAX IS COLLECTED AT TIME OF TICKET
ISSUANCE. CHANGES ANY TIME CHANGES PERMITTED. NOTE - A. CHANGES MADE
TO OTHER THAN THE FIRST TICKETED FLIGHT - -- THE FARE LEVELS IN EFFECT
A THE TIME OF ORIGINAL TICKET ISSUE WILL APPLY - ALL PROVISIONS OF
ORIGINAL TICKETED FARE APPLY. -- IF THE NEW ITINERARY QUALIFIES FOR
THE ORIGINAL TICKETED FARE BUT RESULTS IN A HIGHER FARE - COLLECT DIFFERENCE
IN FARE/TAX //OR// RESULTS IN A LOWER FARE REFUND DIFFERENCE
IN FARE/TAX TO ORIGINAL FORM OF PAYMENT AT THE TIME OF REISSUE. --
CHANGE MADE TO OTHER THAN THE FIRST TICKETED FLIGHT RESULT IN THE NEW
ITINERARY NO LONGER QUALIFYING FOR THE ORIGINAL TICKETED FARE - THE
FULL VALUE MAY BE APPLIED TOWARD AN EQUAL OR HIGHER QUALIFYING FARE --
USING FARES IN EFFECT OF THE ORIGNAL TICKET DATE COLLECT DIFFERENCE
IN FARE/TAX AT TIME OF REISSUE

You should always notify the airline ahead of time (or very soon afterward) when you're going to miss your flight, especially when you have a fully refundable fare. If you notified them ahead of time you'd get all your money back, but now I'm not sure what you'll get (if anything).

Thanks for the info, I called and United failed to change my first booking (June 15th), so I was over a month late anyway. The CSR happily changed my flight to August 10th, no questions asked. I am making a mid-year resolution to pay more attention to my flight bookings. ^:)

What? For full fares you can miss you flight, you can even check-in and no-show, and that does not effect anything. That's why the OP had no problems changing, and he would have had no problems getting a refund.

That is ludicrous. He will get a full refund if he wanted, or rebooking to a different date, assuming availability. That is the whole point of full fare.

So booking Y is like a "god" fare? I didn't know for Y fares, you can even miss your flight and then refund the cost. I thought it always have to be done prior to flight date.