Does anyone know United's cancellation fees?

[SnowshoeCat]

I bought my trans-Atlantic tickets through ChoiceAir (the fare was the same as if I bought it myself directly from the airline) and may need to cancel. The tickets are non-refundable. However, I'd like to know what the change fee is before I make any decisions. ChoiceAir's website says to check with the airline. United's website says "it depends", and when I called on the phone, the hold time was too long for me to wait around.

 

A few questions: If I cancel, do I get a credit for the ticket price, minus the fee? Does anybody know what the fee is? $200, $300, more?

 

Does the credit need to be used all at once, and can I use it to buy a ticket for someone else? (I don't think that would be a name change, since it's a whole new ticket)

 

Thanks for any info. Happy New Year!

[FlyerTalker]

I bought my trans-Atlantic tickets through ChoiceAir (the fare was the same as if I bought it myself directly from the airline) and may need to cancel. The tickets are non-refundable. However, I'd like to know what the change fee is before I make any decisions. ChoiceAir's website says to check with the airline. United's website says "it depends", and when I called on the phone, the hold time was too long for me to wait around.

 

A few questions: If I cancel, do I get a credit for the ticket price, minus the fee? Does anybody know what the fee is? $200, $300, more?

 

Does the credit need to be used all at once, and can I use it to buy a ticket for someone else? (I don't think that would be a name change, since it's a whole new ticket)

 

Thanks for any info. Happy New Year!

From the United website, which was reached with just THREE clicks:

Ticket refund policies

 

Tickets purchased through united.com or the United Customer Contact Center within the last 24 hours may qualify for waiver of change or cancellation fees under our 24-hour flexible booking policy.

 

 

In all other cases, a refund may be requested for any fare that allows refunds. Depending on the rules of the fare purchased, a cancellation penalty may apply. Most fares are non-refundable, and are not eligible for voluntary refunds. However, the value of your ticket may be eligible to be applied toward the price of a new ticket for a fee.

 

 

The refund amount you will receive depends on several variables. For example, tickets that are partially traveled will be calculated at a prorated amount based on the rules of the ticket purchased and segments flown. Fees and surcharges collected in conjunction with the ticket will only be refunded if applicable.

 

 

Select a section below for more information:

Travel agency and cruise line agency tickets Refunds for tickets issued through a travel agency should be processed through the issuing agency.

In other words, it completely depends on the specific fare rules of the ticket you have. Which we have no way of knowing. So...you need to process through the issuing agency, aka Choice Air. Which leads to the wonderful question...if the price was the same, why did you not buy directly from UA? Edited January 4, 2015 by FlyerTalker

[SnowshoeCat]

So you don't know the answer, thank you for your time.

 

I found the same page at United. I thought maybe someone would have some more information.

 

I bought through ChoiceAir for a few reasons.

 

Again, thank you for your time. Happy New Year.

[greatam]

So you don't know the answer, thank you for your time.

 

Snarky answer so early in the morning. NO ONE KNOWS because most Choice Air tickets that are purchased are bulk purchase/consolidator tickets and have their own sets of rules (NOT the normal airline issued rules) which the general public CANNOT see and does not know about. So again, you will have to go to Choice Air and discuss it with them. If they refuse to give you an answer and send you back to United, you may want to send them United's rules regarding cruise line/travel agency tickets.

 

.

I bought through ChoiceAir for a few reasons.

 

Again, thank you for your time. Happy New Year.

 

Please expound on your reasons. I can't think of one if the price was the same. You would not be dealing with this situation if you had purchased directly from the airline for the same price. Good luck.

[CantanaLobo]

You really do need to look at the fare rules to find out how much. No one on here can tell you how much. Once purchased, United does not make the rules available to mere mortals. You need to call. I've had United TATL business class tickets with a $450 fee. I did look at the fare rules before purchase, so I would know beforehand if I needed to cancel.

 

If your tickets are normal United tickets, you call to cancel (or do it online). You can then use the value of those tickets for another flight. The "administrative fee" is charged on top of that when you do so. I understand some other airlines subtract the fee from the value and let you use the remainder, but United does not. The fee is new money.

 

Flyer Friendly :rolleyes:

[iancal]

Like others have said, it depends on your fare code.

 

Last Jan it came down to United or Delta for a return flight to Bangkok. The price was the same.

 

Delta won. When we checked the fare code, and each airline has many, we selected Delta. The United ticket fare code was too strict..no changes, no refunds. Delta allowed changes for $200. And we did need to change.

 

If you do not know the fare code/terms associated with a ticket you really do not know what you are buying.

[iancal]

Like others have said, it depends on your fare code.

 

Last Jan it came down to United or Delta for a return flight to Bangkok. The price was the same.

 

Delta won. When we checked the fare code, and each airline has many, we selected Delta. The United ticket fare code was too strict..no changes, no refunds. Delta allowed changes for $200. And we did need to change.

 

If you do not know the fare code/terms associated with a ticket you really do not know what you are buying.

 

Instead of being snarky and asking people who cannot answer, why not pick up the phone and call Choice Asir or United in order to get accurate information.

[6rugrats]

Usually, for an economy TATL ticket, change fee is $300. You must actually pay this money to UA, it's not deducted from the original ticket value. Depending on the fare code, the change fee could be higher. All you have to do is call UA and they'll tell you.

 

You will then have the value of the ticket left which must be used by the originally ticketed passenger. You can't use it for anyone else. Travel must be completed by the date you were first ticketed.

 

No idea if Choice Air has additional fees.

Edited January 4, 2015 by 6rugrats

[SnowshoeCat]

Snarky answer so early in the morning. NO ONE KNOWS because most Choice Air tickets that are purchased are bulk purchase/consolidator tickets and have their own sets of rules (NOT the normal airline issued rules) which the general public CANNOT see and does not know about. So again, you will have to go to Choice Air and discuss it with them. If they refuse to give you an answer and send you back to United, you may want to send them United's rules regarding cruise line/travel agency tickets.

 

.

 

 

Please expound on your reasons. I can't think of one if the price was the same. You would not be dealing with this situation if you had purchased directly from the airline for the same price. Good luck.

 

Yes, I was a little snarky and I apologize. I didn't come on here to defend my decisions. I booked through Choice for the promise of help if my flights were delayed or cancelled.

 

I don't consider myself in a "situation". It would have been the same if I booked through the airline. I always buy non-refundable tickets. I know the risk, and I accept it. The only other times I had to change a ticket, it was a flat fee.

[slidergirl]

Like FTer said, your Choice Air ticket must be processed through Choice Air, as per the United website. And, without knowing the exact full fare code, none of us can tell you what will happen.

I'm sorry that you picked Choice Air because of the false "promise" that they would help you if flights were cancelled or delayed. The only thing CA can do in that case is call the airline themselves on your behalf and get you on the bottom of the list for re-accomodation. If you book directly yourself, you can do this yourself and get further up the list because you called faster than CA would. Those extra minutes you take to call CA and then wait for a CA agent to call the airline could be the difference between getting on a flight in 5 hours or a flight in 3 days. CA has no ability to get you on the "next" flight or bump someone off of a flight to get you onto a flight.

[YXU AC*SE]

Slightly OT, is there any online tool that will allow you to look up fare rules post the time of purchase? (in case you forget to note them at time of purchase?) Scott.

[SnowshoeCat]

Like FTer said, your Choice Air ticket must be processed through Choice Air, as per the United website. And, without knowing the exact full fare code, none of us can tell you what will happen.

I'm sorry that you picked Choice Air because of the false "promise" that they would help you if flights were cancelled or delayed. The only thing CA can do in that case is call the airline themselves on your behalf and get you on the bottom of the list for re-accomodation. If you book directly yourself, you can do this yourself and get further up the list because you called faster than CA would. Those extra minutes you take to call CA and then wait for a CA agent to call the airline could be the difference between getting on a flight in 5 hours or a flight in 3 days. CA has no ability to get you on the "next" flight or bump someone off of a flight to get you onto a flight.

 

I understand what you're saying. And I understand that there are people here who would never book through them. I actually surprised myself when I decided to use their services. It just worked best for me, for this particular cruise. But that wasn't the point of my thread, anyway :)

 

As it turns out, they will refund my ticket (to my credit card, not as an airline credit) minus a $175 fee. I was surprised, especially since it says "non-refundable" in bold letters across the top. "Are you sure?" I asked the agent. She said yes. So I have a reasonable option if I decide not to go cruising.

[6rugrats]

 

As it turns out, they will refund my ticket (to my credit card, not as an airline credit) minus a $175 fee. I was surprised, especially since it says "non-refundable" in bold letters across the top. "Are you sure?" I asked the agent. She said yes. So I have a reasonable option if I decide not to go cruising.

 

Probably because your ticket hadn't been booked with the airline yet, so no airline fee?

[greatam]

Yes, I was a little snarky and I apologize. I didn't come on here to defend my decisions. I booked through Choice for the promise of help if my flights were delayed or cancelled.

 

Please do NOT depend on Choice Air to help you much. As Slidergirl mentioned, you will be FAR ahead handling delays or cancellations yourself, rather than depending on a third party. YOU can deal directly with the airline if you purchased an airline direct ticket. You can reroute your own flights most of the time. Rerouting MAY NOT be possible with a Choice Air ticket-some have restrictions about being "non reroutable" and most are non endorsable meaning you MUST fly the ORIGINAL routing on the ORIGINAL airline even if the only way to get you to your cruise on time is via another airline or another route. You are simply STUCK with what you purchased. I feel so sorry that you believed the smoke and mirrors about Choice Air-lawyer weasel words in most of the online blurbs.

 

And another thing-how much help do you REALLY think you will get most likely on a weekend in a frantic situation? Primarily staffed on the weekend with lower tier operators who DO NOT have the ability or empowerment to make changes which suit your situation.

 

I don't consider myself in a "situation". It would have been the same if I booked through the airline. I always buy non-refundable tickets. I know the risk, and I accept it. The only other times I had to change a ticket, it was a flat fee.

 

You are definitely in a "situation". You cannot deal direct with the airline. You could have saved yourself a lot of hassle by buying the airline direct ticket. One phone call to United, pay the change fee and use your ticket value for anyplace YOU want to go. Now you have involved a third party which realistically could charge you anything they feel like charging you, regardless of what United actually charges.

 

REFUNDABLE/NON REFUNDABLE has absolutely NOTHING to do with it. 95% of fliers book NON REFUNDABLE tickets. Has absolutely NOTHING to do with what the price of a change fee is or if you can get residual value for an already purchased ticket or whether the ticket is no good at all. Refundable tickets are generally booked by business travelers who have a great potential to change plans due to business requirements. Refundable tickets are some of the highest priced tickets out there-you can usually get business class for the price of a refundable coach ticket. So please don't even think of the refundable/non refundable equation.

 

Again, I wish you good luck and take a look at the sticky at the top of this forum to find out all the downsides of Choice Air tickets. It was written a long time ago, but the tickets sold on Choice Air are NO DIFFERENT for the most part than cruise air tickets sold a few years ago. The only difference-YOU do the work of finding the flights. Saved the cruise lines 1000's of dollars in labor trying to match up passengers and airline tickets. Lots of people think Choice Air is new and different. It isn't. Same old class of tickets generally and it saved the cruise lines a LOT of money.

[6rugrats]

Slightly OT, is there any online tool that will allow you to look up fare rules post the time of purchase? (in case you forget to note them at time of purchase?) Scott.

 

Maybe the KVS tool? Not sure, you can check.

[greatam]

Slightly OT, is there any online tool that will allow you to look up fare rules post the time of purchase? (in case you forget to note them at time of purchase?) Scott.

 

You won't find them on Choice Air. BUT with airline direct purchased tickets, you can usually find them via various means by using the airline website or my personal favorite without a fee is ITA. Expert Flyer ($5.00 per month) also has the fare rules. You MUST have the ENTIRE fare code-NOT just an H, Q, A, B, L, S or whatever.

 

Ita-replicate your routing, schedule and airline. Then pull up the "details" section and check that what is shown is an EXACT match to your ENTIRE fare code. If so, then click on fare rules. If not, keep working until you get the same fare code. Works the same way with the airline websites. Sometimes a lot of work, sometimes pretty easy. You generally have to pick flights by schedule on the airline websites to get the fare rules.

 

And NONE of this applies to Choice Air tickets because the rules are whatever the airline/cruise line decides the rules will be and those are NON PUBLISHED fare rules and are not for consumption of the general public. Only one person has ever been able to get the ENTIRE fare code from Choice Air and as it turned out, that was a published fare ticket which was sold at a higher price than the usual Choice Air purchase.

 

Good luck!!!

[Globaliser]

Slightly OT, is there any online tool that will allow you to look up fare rules post the time of purchase? (in case you forget to note them at time of purchase?)

BUT with airline direct purchased tickets, you can usually find them via various means by using the airline website or my personal favorite without a fee is ITA. Expert Flyer ($5.00 per month) also has the fare rules. You MUST have the ENTIRE fare code-NOT just an H, Q, A, B, L, S or whatever.

 

Ita-replicate your routing, schedule and airline. Then pull up the "details" section and check that what is shown is an EXACT match to your ENTIRE fare code. If so, then click on fare rules. If not, keep working until you get the same fare code. ...

ITA will only give you the rules for the current fare. The rules could have changed since the date of ticket purchase, even if the current fare uses the same fare basis code.

 

However, most airlines' rules are pretty stable so you're likely to get quite close for the things that you're most likely to want to know post-purchase.

 

If you really need the actual fare rules for the fare that you actually bought, then a service like EF is needed. I don't know whether KVS offers historical fare rule access.

[jagoffee]

I understand what you're saying. And I understand that there are people here who would never book through them. I actually surprised myself when I decided to use their services. It just worked best for me, for this particular cruise. But that wasn't the point of my thread, anyway :)

 

As it turns out, they will refund my ticket (to my credit card, not as an airline credit) minus a $175 fee. I was surprised, especially since it says "non-refundable" in bold letters across the top. "Are you sure?" I asked the agent. She said yes. So I have a reasonable option if I decide not to go cruising.

 

Did the agent tell you if this "offer" has a time limit? You might want to see if you can get a confirmation e mail before you make your final decision.

[greatam]

Did the agent tell you if this "offer" has a time limit? You might want to see if you can get a confirmation e mail before you make your final decision.

 

VERY, VERY, VERY good point. As 6rugrats pointed out, the tickets have probably NOT been ticketed. So you are currently paying ONLY the Choice Air fee to refund your tickets (they do this because they OWN the tickets and can resell them to someone else).

 

If the offer is time limited and the tickets are ticketed, you may end up paying both the airline fee and the Choice Air fee. Could be a LOT more than $175.00.

[SnowshoeCat]

Did the agent tell you if this "offer" has a time limit? You might want to see if you can get a confirmation e mail before you make your final decision.

 

Yes, that was the first thing I asked her (after "are you sure?"). There is an expiration, and I've got plenty of time to decide. I was surprised, too, because when I go to the airline's website, my reservation is there, I can select seats, and do all that fun stuff.

[6rugrats]

Yes, that was the first thing I asked her (after "are you sure?"). There is an expiration, and I've got plenty of time to decide. I was surprised, too, because when I go to the airline's website, my reservation is there, I can select seats, and do all that fun stuff.

 

When you pull up the e-receipt, do you actually have a ticket number, should begin with 016.

[SnowshoeCat]

When you pull up the e-receipt, do you actually have a ticket number, should begin with 016.

 

I'll check. Right now I'm just deciding if I want to cruise, or get a new roof. I can do both, but maybe just take a less expensive cruise, closer to home ;) I'm leaving on a cruise this weekend, so I should decide about the other one pretty soon.

[Globaliser]

I was surprised, too, because when I go to the airline's website, my reservation is there, I can select seats, and do all that fun stuff.

As 6rugrats alludes to, being able to select seats etc only demonstrates that you have a valid reservation. But you may not yet have a ticket, as FlyerTalker explained in a little more detail here.

[rockdoctor]

I had the same experience. ChoiceAir refunded what I paid minus the cancellation fee. And I had what I thought were refundable tickets!

[kenish]

I had the same experience. ChoiceAir refunded what I paid minus the cancellation fee. And I had what I thought were refundable tickets!

 

Probably same as the other post....CA was holding your money in "escrow" to provide actual non-refundable tickets later. Since there were no tickets when you cancelled, the fee was assessed and pocketed by CA.