Airline policy changes (United made another big one)

[DLgal]

From the DOT website:

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Transportation today issued an Enforcement Notice clarifying, in the context of the 2019 Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) public health emergency, that U.S. and foreign airlines remain obligated to provide a prompt refund to passengers for flights to, within, or from the United States when the carrier cancels the passenger’s scheduled flight or makes a significant schedule change and the passenger chooses not to accept the alternative offered by the carrier. The obligation of airlines to provide refunds, including the ticket price and any optional fee charged for services a passenger is unable to use, does not cease when the flight disruptions are outside of the carrier’s control (e.g., a result of government restrictions).

 

[hilarys]

We were supposed to be at Aulani on Oahu this week. Our flights over were booked on United with miles and then the four of us were returning on two days due to sports - DH and DS on Friday on Hawaiian and me and DD on United on Saturday. We cancelled the flights over to Oahu from SFO and the miles were put back. The flight on Hawaiian ended up not being cancelled as it was the once a week HNL to SFO flight that Hawaiian is still running. DH called and they offered a full refund without much negotiating even though we expected them to just offer a credit for future travel since the flight was not cancelled. My return flight for this Saturday still needs to be dealt with. Originally it was a 1:30 pm flight now it is showing as a 10:30 pm. Going to try sitting on a call with them tomorrow and quote the DOT Enforcement Notice as I would rather have a refund - an afternoon flight to a red eye is not something I would have accepted.

 

[blabadie]

I recently cancelled United tickets to Italy in October and received the 24 month e-certificate that can be used for any passengers on any United flights. I was able to cancel online.

 

[laceltris3]

I recently cancelled United tickets to Italy in October and received the 24 month e-certificate that can be used for any passengers on any United flights. I was able to cancel online.

Good!

I was basically called a liar for saying the same thing.

 

[aggiedog]

Dd was studying abroad in Australia when the pandemic hit. She was going to stay, until the travel advisory hit level 4. Then we had to scramble to get her home. Her United ticket online was going to cost $3,000-$13,000 to change her return flight, or we could have purchased a new one for $800 - except the website crashed every time you hit "purchase." As expected, it was impossible to get anyone on the phone after hours of waiting, all the while listening to the message that said use the website. We ended up getting a flight thru Quantas and canceled her return flight (I would have waited but DH wanted to do it right away.) She now has a E certificate for an unknown amount of money. The website won't tell us what it's worth and still can't get anyone on the phone. If you put the certificate number in the offer code section, it says you must call and talk to an agent. Not that we're flying anywhere soon, but it would be nice to know the status.

 

[Cousin Orville]

I think the lesson I have learned is to book airfare with Disney. I have had two trips cancelled now- April Disneyland and June Danube. For the Danube I booked flights through Disney and got everything back in cash immediately. For Disney I booked my own flights and am now stuck with an airline credit. So lesson learned for me is unless there is a huge price difference I am just booking flights with Disney from now on.

Completely agree. Unfortunately can't do it with frequent flyer miles. But if I was paying cash, I'd definitely check with ABD first.

I recently cancelled United tickets to Italy in October and received the 24 month e-certificate that can be used for any passengers on any United flights. I was able to cancel online.

Good to hear. I'm glad to hear it's for any passengers. I was unclear on that. All in all that's a pretty good policy. It's more lenient than Delta's, isn't it? United's is good for any flight in 2020. Delta's policy ends in May.

 

[Cousin Orville]

I had a flight that I did cancel for a credit, and the upgrade to Econ plus did get refunded to my

Thanks for that. Our tickets were $4,700. I'll probably try to call just to be sure, because the website only shows our base ticket fee of $3500 being refunded. It doesn't include our $1200 worth of econ+ seat selections. To be clear, I haven't actually cancelled on the website. I've just gone up to that last page before confirming the cancellation.

 

[Deploraboo]

Anyone cancel tickets bought with miles on United? Refund of miles or credit?

 

[Cousin Orville]

Anyone cancel tickets bought with miles on United? Refund of miles or credit?

We cancelled our flight to Cairo booked on miles and the miles were refunded in full to our accounts. No cancellation fee. The April flight at that time had not been officially cancelled, but the US policy of nonessential international travel was in place.

 

[tink1970]

Anyone cancel tickets bought with miles on United? Refund of miles or credit?

Same experience as @Cousin Orville -I just cancelled DH's July flight home from Croatia which was on miles - easy peasy-miles immediately refunded and now just waiting for my taxes to be refunded. There was no redeposit fee applied which was a happy surprise since it was for July.

 

[Deploraboo]

So they immediately redeposited miles back into your account? Thanks,

 

[Cliffside]

We booked on points for a September trip on United but paid cash for Economy plus seats. Anyone know what happens with the money we spent to upgrade the seats if we cancel now?

 

[DLgal]

We booked on points for a September trip on United but paid cash for Economy plus seats. Anyone know what happens with the money we spent to upgrade the seats if we cancel now?

If you cancel now, you will not get the upgrade fees back. Why would you cancel a September trip now anyway?

 

[Deploraboo]

Why would we not get upgrade fee back if it’s a duly canceled flight. Federal law says otherwise.

what these airlines are doing is not publicizing future canceled flights despite them having absolutely no intention of resuming a full flight schedule.

 

[Calfan]

Anyone cancel tickets bought with miles on United? Refund of miles or credit?

We cancelled our flight to Cairo booked on miles and the miles were refunded in full to our accounts. No cancellation fee. The April flight at that time had not been officially cancelled, but the US policy of nonessential international travel was in place.

Same experience as @Cousin Orville -I just cancelled DH's July flight home from Croatia which was on miles - easy peasy-miles immediately refunded and now just waiting for my taxes to be refunded. There was no redeposit fee applied which was a happy surprise since it was for July.

So they immediately redeposited miles back into your account? Thanks,

I just cancelled two sets of award flights booked with United miles for our now-cancelled June Japan trip, and I can confirm that no redeposit fee was charged for either cancellation, and the miles were returned to my account instantly. Only one of the flights had taxes/fees in the total amount of $22.40 that will be refunded to my cc. Super easy.

Just as another DP, back in March, I cancelled an award flight from Glasgow to Denver on Lufthansa that had been booked with United miles. This was before United had implemented its policy of not charging a redeposit fee for the remainder of 2020. In this case, the flight had not been cancelled by Lufthansa, but our leg from Glasgow to Frankfurt had been pushed back so it arrived in Frankfurt four hours AFTER our flight from Frankfurt to Denver was supposed to leave. It might have been because this change was so egregious, but when I called to cancel, I got no pushback at all from the agent, who promptly cancelled our flights, redeposited my miles with no fee and refunded the taxes/fees. I do understand that others have had far less favorable experiences with United agents lately, but it is probably worth the hang up and call back approach to see if you might find a more accommodating agent if you are met with resistance on your initial attempts.

 

[TXTransplant]

Good!

I was basically called a liar for saying the same thing.

I’m sorry, but this is ridiculous and uncalled for! There were NO personal attacks on you or anything you said, and your comment is completely unnecessary.

United has/had TWO different policies posted on their website and has changed their policy at least half a dozen times in the last month. It’s causing A LOT of confusion because people are (or were) unsure which policy is being enforced.

I (and other posters) wanted to know that your experience wasn’t an exception, especially since the United website isn’t even updated to reflect correct information.

 

[TeeKo]

I recently cancelled United tickets to Italy in October and received the 24 month e-certificate that can be used for any passengers on any United flights. I was able to cancel online.

I have United tickets to Ireland for June. My TA said I can cancel with no fee. The credit has to be used within 24 months from the original ticketing date. For me, that means by August 2021.

 

[GoingSince1990]

United canceled one of my flights. I called to say I wanted a refund. They tried telling me that the ticket was non-refundable and I could only get a flight credit but I explained that I knew my legal rights and if they did not give me a refund I would dispute the charge on my credit card. They then put a supervisor on the line who processed the refund and it appeared on my credit card a few days later.

 

[DLgal]

Why would we not get upgrade fee back if it’s a duly canceled flight. Federal law says otherwise.

what these airlines are doing is not publicizing future canceled flights despite them having absolutely no intention of resuming a full flight schedule.

I was responding to someone who said THEY were going to cancel a flight and if so, would they get back a seat upgrade fee. They would not.

If the airline cancels it, you will get upgrade seat fees refunded by law.

 

[Cliffside]

If you cancel now, you will not get the upgrade fees back. Why would you cancel a September trip now anyway?

The September flights are for a Disney World trip. I don’t see myself being comfortable going then and the current United policy says flights need to be cancelled by April 30th. I wanted to try and avoid redepositing fees for my miles.