United No Longer Charging Miles Redeposit Fees On Flights They Cancelled

United hasn’t been good when it comes to providing refunds to customers for cancelled and changed flights. After changing their schedule change policy five times they finally settled on that if your flight was changed by more six hours you’d receive a voucher and if the voucher isn’t used for 12 months they would provide you with a refund, basically giving themselves a fee free loan for 12 months.

When it comes to award flights even on flights that United had cancelled they were still trying to charge customers a redeposit fee of $50 to get their miles back. Keep in mind people couldn’t actually take these flights as United had cancelled them but United still wanted some money anyway. United is now doing the right thing (I’m not even sure you can call it the right thing. It’s really the only thing they can do if they don’t want to actively steal from their own loyal customers) and no longer charging this fee according to Dans Deals. If you’ve already paid this fee because your miles were being held hostage you can try calling United to get a refund, if that doesn’t work then filing a complaint with the DoT is probably your best bet.

I think this corona virus situation is telling consumers a lot about individual companies and how they treat their customers. I just hope people are smart enough to remember this when the good times come back around.

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Charlie
Charlie (@guest_948548)
March 30, 2020 21:15

The key phrase is “on flights they cancelled.” As of today (March 30), United still hasn’t cancelled their May IAD-MAD flights, yet there is no way these flights are going to happen. Spain is second only to Italy in coronavirus deaths, and the rate of deaths has not yet peaked. I had an award ticket for May 8 with return on May 21. About ten days ago I went ahead and cancelled everything (flights, trains, hotels, and tours) so I could put this failed trip out of my mind. I reluctantly paid United’s $125 redeposit fee. Given that they still haven’t cancelled the May flights, I’m thinking that if I had waited until now to cancel that I would still have had to pay the $125. Perhaps by mid-April they will belatedly cancel the May flights. On the other hand, Renfe, the Spanish national railroad, graciously refunded the full amount of my fares from Madrid to Granada, a more generous outcome than the original terms of sale. The hotels all gave me free cancellations, too.

United is telling Wall Street and the public that they will be doing very little flying between the US and Europe for the next several months, but they’re not cancelling the flights in their reservation system until 2-3 weeks out. Why? Because they have more leverage with their passengers if the ticket cancellation is passenger-initiated.

Charlie
Charlie (@guest_952704)
April 6, 2020 10:19

Looks like United finally cancelled those flights. And the ones for June. To get from IAD to MAD now you have to fly IAD-EWR-FRA-MAD.

Bruce
Bruce (@guest_948400)
March 30, 2020 18:01

You’d think the company that inspired the “United Breaks Guitars” You-Tube hit would be more conscious of bad pr. Guess not.

Ben
Ben (@guest_948347)
March 30, 2020 16:28

Yeah I already vowed to myself to stop using United (that I have so far stayed true to and literally go out of my way to exclude United from my flight searches.) This is too little too late. From this experience, I wouldn’t count on them in the future to be fair. Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.

anne
anne (@guest_948326)
March 30, 2020 15:42

Just called to cancel the July 31 award tickets and they still wanted to charge me the reseposit fee! The CSR said they only waive fee for flights until May 31!

BB
BB (@guest_948442)
March 30, 2020 18:49

I believe that is true of most airlines at this point. Be patient, they will cancel or it will likely be extended to that date in May.

BooBooBear
BooBooBear (@guest_948298)
March 30, 2020 15:05

I had a flight booked using points from SFO-KIX-SFO that United cancelled on me.I called last week and got my points back, but paid a redeposit fee of $125 per passenger. Rep and supervisor would not budge on the redeposit fee. I just called a few minutes ago requesting a refund of the redeposit fee I paid. Rep advised me that I would not get a refund. Instead, they offered a travel credit good for 12 months from today. I’d have to book within 12 months from today and travel within X months afterwards. I also asked what do new callers get if they wanted to redeposit miles due to a cancelled flight by UA. She replied, the new callers don’t pay the redeposit fee.

Dmark
Dmark (@guest_948291)
March 30, 2020 14:59

Cool, one phone call got my miles back redeposit. Last week I called twice, both got turned down.

scott
scott (@guest_948131)
March 30, 2020 09:07

Unfortunately United still doesn’t care about people who had to cancel flights that United did not cancel. They wanted to charge me a $125 change fee per ticket with the stipulation that I used the new ticket by April.

Craig
Craig (@guest_948146)
March 30, 2020 09:43

was the same here a couple days ago which is confusing for me my flight to australia isn’t cancelled “yet”, but they are not letting anyone into the country but current residents or aussies, but they did move me a while back to another flight all together so I am going to give it a try again hopefully have better luck.

Vy
Vy (@guest_948092)
March 30, 2020 05:25

And I see your true colors
Shining through
I see your true colors
And that’s why I —- you
So don’t be afraid to let them show
Your true colors

Whoami
Whoami (@guest_948070)
March 30, 2020 02:57

I see people hold USA to China tickets to resell it. Does airline ticket allow to transfer or change name ? How do they do it . Are they using award mileage to buy it or credit card ?

James
James (@guest_948063)
March 30, 2020 01:57

Few years ago, United allowed airport security to drag a passenger forcefully against his will for a flight they overbooked and then initially try to blame him for not cooperating. People will still fly them if their fares are lower in the future. Most of the public mainly cares scoring least expensive tickets.

YoniPDX
YoniPDX (@guest_948077)
March 30, 2020 04:20

Nah, I think its just that many a UA passenger would put up with a dragging off a flight for a cool few million or hoping to get dragged off over being bumped. 😉

jr
jr (@guest_948321)
March 30, 2020 15:39

screw that winy dirtbag, looking for attention and money obviously