FlyerTalk Forums - United’s 24-hour cancellation (2024)

I didn't receive new flight credit to use. I guess I'll need to keep calling United until they give me a flight credit some day..

an FFC is an existing itinerary, with the flight segments canceled. I think you are misunderstanding the last answer, which is correct. At least traditionally, when you rebook a flight, it is rebooking within the same PNR, and so it’s not within 24 hours, since the itinerary is existing, just with old flight segments canceled, and new ones added.

now I’ll admit I don’t have experience when booked as a new PNR, using the FFC as payment method. It would seem to me that should generate a refund within 24 hours, since the PNR is new (as opposed to re-booking segments in an existing PNR), but I’m honestly not sure how the logistics of that work, and if that is required to be refunded per the DOT regs.

Thanks for this info! This is really helpful for me to understand what's going on. My hope is to have $100 CC back to CC, and $300 FFC back to FFC, or issued as a new FFC (attached to the new PNR). Those outsourced agents obviously didn't know what's going on. I'll call during US business hours to make sure I can get someone who know about all these policies.

Hi all-

I just booked a last-minute flight for tomorrow to visit a very sick relative. I booked thinking that if I didn't need to make the trip tomorrow, I could cancel within 24 hours. Here's the rules as I see them on United.com:
We know that life happens, and you may need to change your travel plans unexpectedly. United's 24-hour flexible booking policy gives you the freedom to make changes to select reservations within 24 hours of booking and ticketing, without being charged change fees if you made your purchase one week or more before the flight was scheduled to depart. This includes canceling your reservation and requesting a full refund of the ticket price. Although Basic Economy reservations aren’t eligible for changes within 24 hours, they’re still eligible for a full refund if you cancel within 24 hours and you made your purchase one week or more before the flight was scheduled to depart. Please view the terms and conditions below for more details.

As I didn't book Basic economy, I believe that 'one week or more' rule doesn't apply. However, in my ticket receipt, this is what it says... as there is NO mention of the Basic Economy stipulation:

When you book and ticket a reservation through united.com, the United mobile app, the United Customer Contact Center, at our ticket counters or city ticket offices, or if you use MileagePlus® miles to book an award ticket, we will allow you to cancel the ticketed reservation without penalty and receive a 100 percent refund of the ticket price to the original form of payment if you cancel the reservation within 24 hours of purchase and if the reservation is made one week or more prior to scheduled flight departure.

So... am I still safe w/ this ticket to cancel within 24 hours? THANKS!!

OP Here... nevermind! I did a 'mock' cancellation and it says:You're eligible to cancel without paying a fee under our 24-hour flexible booking policy.

I don't understand how you parse that to mean that if you didn't book basic economy there is no 7 day rule. IMO it's quite clear; you should read it carefully

All it says is that basic economy tickets are also eligible to be cancelled for full refund with 24 hours. In other words, basic economy tickets are treated the same as regular tickets.

United has not enforced the 7 day policy for years. You are free to cancel a ticket within 24 hours of booking, even if booked the day of or the day before departure. Be warned: you cannot cancel the ticket after departure time for a refund, even if it's less than 24 hours after booking (obvi excluding refundable tickets). The ticket is cancelled the second you don't check-in and board your booked flight on time. You may find an agent willing to bend that rule but I wouldn't try it.

-RM

While UA changed the wording 2016Q4 (as allowed by the DoT rules more earlier) UA has essentially never enforced the 7-day exception. (A single case with other issues was reported pre-COVID)

Correct. The week before language is what the DOT requires. Airlines can choose to beyond, and UA always has. However, the wording in there means they can start enforcing whenever they want.

I’m honestly surprised when COVID started and those losses started pouring in, they didn’t. However, the other said of me wonders if the occurances of people booking and then canceling within 24 hours close to departure is probably pretty low, and maybe the cost to implement isnt even worth it.

TB funds on a sub-24 hour cancellation can take up to 2 weeks to be returned. Apparently it takes some manual processing.

You will find much discussion of this in

Thank you! Will read through that thread better. Thought it was only about getting AMEX incidental travel credit.

I purchased a ticket and then got an alert shortly after that the price was lower. Since it was within the 24 hour free cancellation window, I cancelled and rebooked the same flight. Now a few hours later, another alert arrives that the ticket is $100 cheaper. I'm wondering if it is ok to cancel again during the new 24 hours and rebook the flight at the cheaper cost or is this frowned upon.

This is unusual to me to have 2 significant price drops so quickly (although the flight was originally much higher than it usually is for this route). I'm not sure if I should just forget about the cheaper price or is it fine to cancel and rebook the same flight again on consecutive days using the 24 hour cancellation policy.