United charging $100 to cancel Houston to Boston flight in April

[Quickblue02]

I just went to the United website and tried to cancel my roundtrip flights from Houston to Boston in April. I bought the flights with miles. Their site wants me to put my credit card number in so they can charge me %100 per person to cancel these flights. Anyone figure a way to cancel domestic United flights without charges?

[Silk McCue]

Give them a call. The system MAY just not be updated to handle.

https://www.united.com/ual/en/us/fly/tr ... ml#waiver6

Cheers

[Quickblue02]

They sould update their web site so we can do this on-line vs waiting hours to talk to someone.

[galawdawg]

Are you certain they are waiving fees to cancel domestic flights? According to the travel notice posted by United and linked above, they are waiving change fees.

From The Points Guy website:

United Airlines

United’s travel waiver related to the coronavirus outbreak follows a similar pattern: Customers will pay no change or cancellation fees on flights that depart through April 30, and if your flight was booked between March 3 and March 31, this waiver covers all travel dates. Like Delta and American, it too doesn’t explicitly address award tickets. However, when TPG reached out to the airline, a spokesperson confirmed that you could change tickets booked with miles for free, as long as they fell during the applicable booking and/or travel windows.

Unfortunately, when we followed up regarding canceling award tickets, the spokesperson clarified that the redeposit fee would still apply — which varies based on United Premier elite status.

[Quickblue02]

Has anyone found the same fee at other airlines?

[UpperNwGuy]

Is it a true cancellation fee, or is it a redeposit fee to put the frequent flyer miles back into your account. I had an award ticket booked on United for a May 2020 trip to Spain, and I cancelled it late last week. United did not charge a cancellation fee, but they charged a $125 redeposit fee to restore my 60,000 miles for future use. From following flyer forums on the internet, I believe this is the best you can do.

I have heard that if you paid for a United ticket with real money (not frequent flyer miles), they don't refund your money. Instead they give you a credit towards a future flight that has to be taken by the end of 2020.

[GeoffD]

I have a BOS-LHR flight in early May using Delta FT points on Virgin Atlantic metal. It’s the same zero communication issue about awards tickets and there’s no point in calling reservations since it’s a many hour queue and I don’t need to deal with it yet.

[barros]

I had a couple international round trip flights booked with miles and they were allowing me to cancel it for a voucher for a future flight, for free, OR $125 per flight per person to redeposit the miles. I didn’t like either option so I decided to wait until last minute to see if United themselves cancel the flight. Turns out I received a message a couple days ago and United re routed the first leg of one of the flights. That put THEM at fault and they canceled and redeposited the miles for free. If your flight is still weeks out, I’d wait until last minute to cancel. There’s a good chance they will disrupt your flight and be forced to give your miles back for free. I still have one one-way flight (my trip was broken down into 3 separate itinerary for logistical reasons, unfortunately) I’m waiting to see if they cancel so I can get my miles back for free.

[UpperNwGuy]

I had a couple international round trip flights booked with miles and they were allowing me to cancel it for a voucher for a future flight, for free, OR $125 per flight per person to redeposit the miles. I didn’t like either option so I decided to wait until last minute to see if United themselves cancel the flight. Turns out I received a message a couple days ago and United re routed the first leg of one of the flights. That put THEM at fault and they canceled and redeposited the miles for free. If your flight is still weeks out, I’d wait until last minute to cancel. There’s a good chance they will disrupt your flight and be forced to give your miles back for free. I still have one one-way flight (my trip was broken down into 3 separate itinerary for logistical reasons, unfortunately) I’m waiting to see if they cancel so I can get my miles back for free.

How long a delay between the scheduled departure of your original flight and your re-routing? How many additional hours did the re-routing add to your trip? I'm guessing it was more than 6 hours; otherwise United would not have been so generous with redepositing your miles for free.

[barros]

I had a couple international round trip flights booked with miles and they were allowing me to cancel it for a voucher for a future flight, for free, OR $125 per flight per person to redeposit the miles. I didn’t like either option so I decided to wait until last minute to see if United themselves cancel the flight. Turns out I received a message a couple days ago and United re routed the first leg of one of the flights. That put THEM at fault and they canceled and redeposited the miles for free. If your flight is still weeks out, I’d wait until last minute to cancel. There’s a good chance they will disrupt your flight and be forced to give your miles back for free. I still have one one-way flight (my trip was broken down into 3 separate itinerary for logistical reasons, unfortunately) I’m waiting to see if they cancel so I can get my miles back for free.

How long a delay between the scheduled departure of your original flight and your re-routing? How many additional hours did the re-routing add to your trip? I'm guessing it was more than 6 hours; otherwise United would not have been so generous with redepositing your miles for free.

They actually canceled the leg and rebooked it for next day. It was supposed to be a flight from PHX to IAH, they sent me to EWR the next day. It was indeed a huge change but given current events, not unlikely to happen to any flight in the next few weeks. It’s also not unlikely MA will just close the state and the flight will get canceled altogether. If there’s no downside, I’d wait.

[Quickblue02]

Just checked the United site. United has lowered the fee to $50 per ticket to cancel the flights and deposit the miles back into my account. They should do the right thing and eliminate the redeposit fee.

[ScubaHogg]

I just went to the United website and tried to cancel my roundtrip flights from Houston to Boston in April. I bought the flights with miles. Their site wants me to put my credit card number in so they can charge me %100 per person to cancel these flights. Anyone figure a way to cancel domestic United flights without charges?

I’d wait till you get closer. I had to travel on Saturday. The airports were ghost towns, the planes empty, and most of the flights on the board cancelled. They very well might cancel it themselves.

[Quickblue02]

Just checked the United site again. I was able to cancel the flights and have the miles returned to my account and have the tax credited back to my account for no charge. I did this all from the United website. A happy ending. My flights were in 3 weeks.

[barros]

I actually just did the same. I still had one one-way flight that they wanted me to pay $150 to get the miles re-deposited, I logged in this morning and was able to cancel and get the miles back without paying anything. Glad things worked out for you OP.