United Airlines is actually refunding me!

[Aladora]

OMG, I cannot believe this!

We decided to cancel our (holy heck expensive first class!) flights last March 11th and was originally told that we could only get a future flight credit that was good for flights starting Dec 17, 2020.

A few months after cancelling, I submitted a request for a refund since at that time, early May 2020, there was no end in sight and no eta for travel. My request was denied.

January 2021, I submitted a second request for a refund. My request was denied.

I got fed up and submitted a complaint to the Canadian Transportation Agency.

Early March 2021, United extended the flight credit to March 31, 2022.

Yesterday the CTA got back to me and asked me to submit a refund request with United, I sent along copies of both times I requested and was denied refunds.

Today, United sent me this!

Dear Mrs. XXXXX:

I have received your correspondence from The Canadian Transportation Agency regarding your ticket refund requests for you and your family. We understand your hesitation to travel to Miami this past March 14, 2020 due to the COVID-19 crisis.

Please note that United is not refunding tickets that are nonrefundable based solely on the coronavirus pandemic. We do however have an obligation to refund money paid for a ticket in the following situations:

- A refund will be provided if there is a significant schedule change and we cannot re-accommodate you on another flight without significant delay.
- A refund will be provided if your flight is cancelled with no alternate flight option offered.

We show your reservation for travel on March 14, 2020 was made on December 17, 2019 and that you canceled it on March 11, 2020 with no significant schedule changes or flight cancellations to your itinerary at the time. Since you canceled your itinerary before any significant flight schedule changes, the changes did not impact your travel and your tickets are unfortunately not eligible for a refund.

However, given the circumstances, I have authorized an exception as a goodwill gesture to refund all three tickets to the original form of payment. Please allow 7-10 business days processing time.

We are thankful for your business and hope you and your family consider United the next time you book a flight.

Bold and Underlining mine.

 

[dis_guy]

Good for you! I'm sure that's a load off your mind.

Over the years I have flown many times with United to the US and back and have generally found them to be pretty reasonable to deal with. I know a lot of folks love to bash them but they really are no better or worse than any other airline in my experience.

 

[newdeal]

I had flights to Hawaii booked for February with United. I cancelled them in around November and United initially gave me credit, but I booked with points through RBC and so I called RBC and they had no issue getting United to do a refund (which was a mix of cash and avion points back in my account...have enough points for like 8 Hawaii tickets now since I can't spend these points on anything)

 

[bababear_50]

So happy For you Aladora,,, see if first you don't succeed does work!
Nice to see something good happen for a good person!!!!

Congrats
Hugs
Mel

 

[alohamom]

Great idea to complain to the Canadian Transportation Agency!
Glad to hear you got your refund.

 

[Hopeful8]

Same thing happened to me with Delta! Happy for you!!

 

[Aladora]

So, update to the ongoing saga of the United refunds.

My no For-Ex Visa was credited for all of the flights...but they also credited me twice for 2 of the tickets!

I'm going to give it a few days to see if they figure out their mistake before contacting the credit card to get them to cut a cheque for the credit. I only use that card for non-Cad $ purchases so there is no way I am going to use such a large credit in the near future!

 

[DavidL]

Not flight related, but I had bought non-refundable tickets to a music festival that I've attended multiple times over the years in Minnesota. (I'm in South-Western Ontario) The event was pushed from July 2020 to July 2021. Our tickets automatically rolled over to the following year. It became abundantly clear in February that we wouldn't be able to attend due to Covid-19 restrictions in Canada (and also due to not being vaccinated), so I reached out to the event owner. The event owner told me to send the tickets back, and they issued a full refund. It is nice to see some businesses having good ethics and refunding "non-refundable" tickets due to the virus.

 

[SirDuff]

Good for you.

I was actually very impressed with UA back at the very beginning of this. I was home (Canada) and was supposed to fly on back to Switzerland on UA (via New York). There are no direct flights between Toronto and where I live, so I always have to connect anyway, and I spend a few days in New York at the start of my trip, so flying back via there made sense. Then Trump closed the US border to those who had been in Europe in previous 14 days (coincidently on the day I left the US for Canada). I was scheduled to fly home the day after the rule went into place. I called UA (along with 10,000 other people) and they changed me to Air Canada with no problem and for no additional money. The AC flight is not a codeshare flight and would have costs me a few thousand extra to book myself though UA (I was in business class). Not sure if UA and AC had a special codeshare deal or if UA ate the costs, but I was super happy.