Curious if this has happened to you & what you would do…

[Guest]

I booked a flight for my daughter on American & decided to cancel it within the 24 hour window. The United Airlines website was showing an error when I tried to self-cancel.

The cancellation window was almost over & I was starting to feel stressed as this was a $1500 flight. Phone support was closed at the time.

I reached out to their chat support & they told me they could cancel it for me & that it was taken care of. I was so relieved that I forgot to ask for a confirmation number. I was canceling several flights so I didn’t notice that a cancellation confirmation never came through.

A week or two later, I received an email about an itinerary change on that flight. Confused, I reached out to support and they told me they had no record of my cancellation... It was a basic economy flight with no changes allowed. I submitted their refund request form, but was denied.

Is there anything I can do or do I just need to suck this up as a lesson to always always get a confirmation number before assuming that something is canceled?

Would love thoughts & advice.

My only idea right now is to teach out to my credit card company to initiate a chargeback. Not sure if I would win or not. I have screenshots of my browser history showing that I was on the cancellation page & then on the help page.

PS - on top of everything else, when the second customer service person said there was nothing they could do and I asked them for alternative ways to find the record of my previous chat, the chat window suddenly had an error. It seemed very much like they just didn’t want to deal with me anymore & cut me off.

PS.2: I made an error, this was United, not American.

[Linda]

I don't see anywhere in her comment she was trying to make an itinerary change, or the flight was changed more than 4 hours she just wanted to cancel her flight.

[Shannon]

You should be able to retrieve the chat history. I always take screenshots of chats with AA. It has saved me multiple times.

[Shirish]

How much of an itinerary change is it? If more than 4 hours, you should be able to get a full refund.

[Emily]

I would absolutely take it to your credit card. And as noted above, please consider if the change is big enough to have a refund applied.

[Pam]

Credit card company. We had an EasyJet flight. 24 hour cancellation. There was NO way to cancel! No person. No chat bot. No phone line. No customer service. We filed a complaint with the credit card company and we have to wait 15 days for Easy Jet to reply then will get a refund.

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[Julie]

If it was a basic fare, there’s nothing you can do. Those fares don’t allow for any changes etc. It’s a loss of funds.

[Kaika]

The chat history would be best but them changing the flight might give you an out to cancel as well. Look into both these options.

[Devorah]

You don’t have the cancellation number but you do have the text messages, hopefully. Screenshots of those text messages should serve to prove that you were told this was taken care of.

When I needed help with the reservation and had far too many phone calls on hold and hold times, I got on Twitter and the twitter team was amazing, helped me 100%.

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[Tracy]

It sounds like you ended up canceling to request the refund. Reach out to American Airlines via the phone, no chat and open a formal compliant requesting that the chat transcripts be pulled. You authorized the booking, that will most likely negate the credit card company from refunding the fare.

Just to verify, you booked basic and not main cabin?

[Susan]

Open a new chat while logged in to your account and scroll up, it will show your history and you can get a screenshot showing you canceled and something happened on their end.

Then use this to apply again online for a refund. If that doesn’t work, upload those same screenshots in your request for credit card to reverse the charges.

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[Julia]

Do you have a copy of the chat you did with American?

That seems like the only proof you’ll have if the conversation. I’m not sure your credit card will be able to help you unfortunately. If you have no proof of the conversation it will look like you are trying to get your money back after that 24 hour window.

I found an unauthorized charge of $6000 on my credit card for a flight through Booking that I did not make and while my credit card company is investigating it, they said it will take about a month. They aren’t just taking my word for it.

Hopefully you get this straightened out and end up with a refund. That’s a lot of money to lose out in through no fault of your own.

Especially considering the airline will just resell that seat and make money twice on it.

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[Kara]

You can usually use the itinerary change as an excuse to cancel. They can’t change it and not offer you a refund if it doesn’t work with your plans.