Jim is right. Cheaptickets.com should have been your sole point of contact as they acted as agent even though the ticket was issued on United ticket stock. Here's why.
When a travel agency (which Cheaptickets.com is an online travel agency) issues a ticket on multiple airlines two things happen. First, the agency decides which "ticket stock" to issue the tickets on. This term goes back to the days of paper tickets and e-tickets work essentially the same way but for accounting reasons the money paid for the entire ticket must all go to one entity and then as you travel each airline on the itinerary is paid out of those funds by the issuing carrier. Usually on a domestic ticket the ticket is issued on the stock of the first airline who transports you on your itinerary.
The record of this itinerary along with your contact information (e-mail address and telephone number) is maintained in the various airline's reservations systems on what's called a PNR or Passenger Name Record. (
There's an excellent overview of this process on Wikipedia.) In your case there were four PNRs - the original or Master PNR created and maintained by Cheaptickets.com and one each maintained by United, US Airways (for the codeshare flights) and Continental. As schedule changes or flight cancellations are made by each airline involved on an itinerary, those changes are communicated back to the Master PNR. Since the Master PNR was from a travel agency in the event of a complete cancellation where that airline no longer serves the destination the airline will send notification back to the agency and it is up to that agency to notify the passenger and to make changes in order to secure space on another airline.
So as you can see (I hope) United was the airline your tickets were issued on and they were holding the funds until you actually used that ticket. As you traveled the portions on US Airways and Continental each of those airlines would have submitted to United for payment of their portion. United was probably not even aware of the cancellation of the Continental segment until you called them because Continental would have notified Cheaptickets.com and it was up to them to re-book you, not United. Even if the segment affected a United or US airways flight (part of a connection) they were under no obligation to do anything about it as it must be resolved between Cheaptickets.com and Continental.
Cheaptickets.com is owned by Orbitz. Their company headquarters is in Chicago, IL:
Orbitz Worldwide, Inc.
500 W. Madison
Chicago, Illinois 60661
Phone: 312-894-5000
Fax: 312-894-5001
Since they ae not a "brick and mortar" travel agency it's your call as to how you proceed from here. You can file a complaint with your local Better Business Bureau or the
BBB of Chicago, IL:
BBB Headquarters
330 N Wabash Avenue Suite #2006 Chicago, IL 60611
Phone: (312) 832-0500
Fax: (312) 832-9985
Jim mentioned filing in small claims court however from your account the ticket was refunded and you did not mention purchasing another ticket so without any real monetary loss you are somewhat limited in that regard. You might consider contacting the offices of the
Colorado Attorney General. They have a consimer protection department and you can file a complaint online at the link I provided or in writing at:
Office of the Attorney General
Consumer Protection Section
1525 Sherman Street, 7th floor
Denver, CO 80203
Phone 1-800-222-4444
Fax 303-866-4916
There are links on that website to the BBBs in Coloado as well. Good luck!