Using miles on United - cancel ?

[las3888]

Hi all,

I see a rare save award for our upcoming October trip to WDW available to us. If I book this using my husband's miles and the small fee involved, what are our change or cancel policies? They are almost impossible to decipher on the United website. If we see a better flight, need to change dates, etc. can we do so with no penalty? If we just want to cancel, do the points go back into his account?

I should add that while the flights are from Chicago to Orlando, the outbound is routed through Houston (which we don't love). If there is some kind of rule that we have to re-book for a different date, say, do we have to re-route through Houston as well?

Any advice please?

Thanks!

 

[DebbieB]

Hi all,

I see a rare save award for our upcoming October trip to WDW available to us. If I book this using my husband's miles and the small fee involved, what are our change or cancel policies? They are almost impossible to decipher on the United website. If we see a better flight, need to change dates, etc. can we do so with no penalty? If we just want to cancel, do the points go back into his account?

I should add that while the flights are from Chicago to Orlando, the outbound is routed through Houston (which we don't love). If there is some kind of rule that we have to re-book for a different date, say, do we have to re-route through Houston as well?

Any advice please?

Thanks!

United's rules are here:

http://www.united.com/web/en-US/content/mileageplus/awards/travel/ticketing.aspx

Changing the departure to a date/time 21 days away or more - No fee

Adding, changing or deleting a connection, 21 days or more prior to departure - No fee

Canceling your trip and re-crediting miles - $150

 

[las3888]

Thank you for the info. So it sounds like you can pretty much change routes, destinations, or dates as long as you are 21 days out but you can't cancel w/out a penalty. Do you know if that penalty is per reservation or per person? Thank you again!

 

[DebbieB]

Thank you for the info. So it sounds like you can pretty much change routes, destinations, or dates as long as you are 21 days out but you can't cancel w/out a penalty. Do you know if that penalty is per reservation or per person? Thank you again!

Per Person

When requesting a change for more than one ticket, the fee applies to each ticket separately. If two people are traveling together and make a change, for example, there will be a fee for both.

 

[las3888]

ugh...well, I guess one can figure they can keep re-booking something else until something finally works. Thank you!

 

[lost*in*cyberspace]

Thank you for the info. So it sounds like you can pretty much change routes, destinations, or dates as long as you are 21 days out but you can't cancel w/out a penalty. Do you know if that penalty is per reservation or per person? Thank you again!

Just FYI, if you are a UA 1K, you can cancel a FF award ticket and redeposit miles for no fees.

 

[dudspizza]

Also, the changing of the flight to another flight can only be done if an awards flight available.

An example is my upcoming flight MSP-RNO. I had a long connection in Houston, but it was the best flight at the time. Due diligence on my part found a better flight through Denver about a month later. I was able to switch for free, but that was only because it was an awards flight that had opened up...

Duds

 

[shamrock30]

When I recently went to change the dates on our UAL tickets to Europe, even if the destinations were the same, we would have been charged a fee if we didn't fly on the same partners as originally booked. In this case, there were many possible partners on the route, and connecting flights were involved, so it was virtually impossible to pull off. Also, unlike what some others are reporting, we were not allowed to change the routing or destinations without a fee. Maybe if you can make your changes online, you can get away with more, but the system wouldn't allow us to change an international trip online.

 

[lost*in*cyberspace]

Thank you for the info. So it sounds like you can pretty much change routes, destinations, or dates as long as you are 21 days out but you can't cancel w/out a penalty. Do you know if that penalty is per reservation or per person? Thank you again!

No, you cannot change your route/destination without a fee, unless you are a 1K or above. The only time you can avoid a fee is if you keep the exact route, but change the departure date/time more than 21 days before the trip, as explained at the link posted by DebbieB.