[marketplace]

On June 4, I bought round-trip reservations on United Airlines website to go from Raleigh to Chicago for my Mom’s birthday party on July 26 & 27.


I made a mistake – I actually booked the tickets to come on July 27th and return July 28th. I made this mistake on two of three tickets I purchased.
I did not realize I had made the mistake until Wednesday, July 23rd, when I tried to print my boarding passes.


I was very upset – but it was 100% my fault. I tried calling United to change the flight. I had bought non-refundable, non-transferable tickets and no flight insurance since I was looking for the best price.


On July 23rd, I called United customer service. After over an hour of going through a very complicated phone system, I finally find a human voice. However, the person I talked to was in India spoke highly accented English. He could not easily understand me – and I had trouble understanding him.


I finally figured out that it would cost me over $750 to make the change. It’s $150 penalty per ticket plus the difference in the fare. I decided against it since I could book one-way on American Airlines for $212 per person.


I got to my destination without trouble. Had an enjoyable weekend – and then tried to use the return portion of my flight. I had not cancelled it.
I knew something was wrong when I couldn’t print the boarding pass at the hotel.


I arrived early at O’Hare for my 1 p.m. flight only to discover that my ticket had been cancelled because I did not use the first leg of the flight!


The ticket clerk was friendly, but explained she could not do anything. She called her manager – who also explained she could not do anything. The second manager called her manager. Their only option was for me was to purchase two tickets at close to $1,000 a ticket.


I demanded to speak to the manager’s supervisor, who finally came after one and half hours. During this time, I was making frantic phone calls trying to line up another flight.


The manager decided to override the system and only charge us a $150 each – $300 total – penalty and then gave us back the exact same seats we had reserved on June 4. That there was a delay due to mechanical trouble is par for the course.


I would appreciate that at least the $300 penalty be waived. I am disputing the charge with my credit card company.



I have no idea where the policy came from. I tried to go the website, but still cannot find the policy of unilaterally canceling tickets written in plain English.