Any suggestion where to go now?
 

I have emailed and sent snail mail letters to Jeff Smisek and Glenn Tilton. I have registered two complaints with Star Alliance. ANY SUGGETSTIONS on where I could go from here. (I dread picking up the phone again!)
On 20 June 2011 I ruptured my patella tendon; I had surgery to repair it on 28 June 2011. Because of this injury and surgery I was in a leg immobilizer and was instructed not to fly for three months. This meant that my family’s trip to Vancouver, Canada scheduled for August, had to be canceled. I called United customer service and spent several hours on the phone and on the United website trying to figure out what I needed to do to cancel mine, my son’s and my daughter’s tickets and not lose the over $2000 we had invested in them. (My husband’s ticket was being taken care of by his office) I was instructed to cancel the tickets, then, within a year get a reissue for them. I would be charged $150 per ticket but if I showed medical proof, I could get $100 per ticket refunded. I also reserved expanded leg room seats and was told in order to recoup that cost I would have to get the new ticket, take the flight then show medical proof for a refund of the extra charge.
On 19 March 2012, I began booking a round trip flight from Ft Lauderdale to Los Angeles for me and my husband for 20 July 2012 returning 23 July 2012.(The children are not traveling with us) I did 90 percent of the booking online but, since I was using my canceled ticket, I HAD to call the reservation number—1 800-864-8331. This was about 1030pm eastern time. When you call that number and ask for an agent, it suggests you go online. I had to say agent three times then, agent queue, before it would even redirect my call. All of that took several minutes. I was forewarned that it could be a long wait and maybe I could call back another time. In the interest of your time, I will tell you that I was on the phone until 2:30 AM -- 3 hours—most of it on hold, with no resolution. At one point I was put on hold and rerouted to the beginning! Also I could see flights online that your agents could not! Michele (agent number WH) told me they would work on the issue and send me an email. I did not receive it. The next day I started all over again and after another hour and a half phone call, 15 minutes of which was spent actually talking to someone, to find out that I cannot use the tickets how I’d like to and that my children and I are the only ones who can use those tickets! That is ridiculous! She directed me to call 1-800-WE CARE 2 for further assistance. I did and after saying refunds was told to Ask Alex on the website and was disconnected.

I'm surprised the united reps did not tell you this....

In addition to change penalties (waived if medical issue) and fare differences, you need to realize a few more things about changing flights:
1. The unused funds are based on the traveler name, not the person who pays for the ticket. It appears as though you canceled your and your children's tickets. Then you want to apply these unused funds to your and your HUSBAND's tickets. This is generally not possible.

2. The tickets are valid ONE year from the DATE OF ISSUE. Based on your message, you cancelled the ticket on 20 Jun 2011 (So you must have bought them much earlier than this date). You then want to apply the unused funds from this ticket to travel in July 2012. This would not be possible.

I agree though that UNited customer service has dropped tremendously. They can't even integrate the 2 systems smoothly (something for which they had more than a year to plan and execute)

Well as a follow up, I just got off the phone with a UA representative that had both the authority and know-how to help. The issue has been resolved! Though the initial customer service was poor, the follow-up to my complaint was great.