United Airlines 24-hour refund policy: are non Basic Economy tickets fully refundable within 24 hours of booking? (purchase made >7days before flight)

I read on the United Airlines 24-hour refund policy (mirror):

Under our 24-hour flexible booking policy, if your ticket was purchased through United in the last 24 hours and you completed your purchase one week or more before the original scheduled departure flight, it may qualify for waiver of change or cancellation fees.

Basic Economy tickets are not eligible for changes, but are eligible for a full refund inside 24 hours of booking as long as you completed your purchase one week or more before the original scheduled departure flight.

Basic Economy tickets are clearly fully refundable within 24 hours of booking. Are other ticket types also fully refundable within 24 hours of booking?

The quote above says "it may qualify for waiver of change or cancellation fees.", which indicates neither the certainty nor the entirety of the refund.

Assume that the flight ticket purchase is made one week or more before the original scheduled departure flight.

Best Answer

As a complement to Hilmar's answer, I'd note 2 dirty tricks from United Airlines I've noticed when I booked and canceled a flight ticket with them:

Dirty Trick 1: United Airlines' website sometimes doesn't allow customers to cancel the ticket, but instead ask to call the customer service. This means one better not try to cancel after 23 hours and 59 minutes after the purchase of the flight ticket.:

We are unable to process your request. To continue with the cancellation of this trip, contact us at 1-800-UNITED-1 (1-800-864-8331).

Dirty Trick 2: After calling the customer service and canceling a flight ticket with them, no confirmation email is sent. This means that the customer has no record of the cancelation or the cancelation request, so one has to pray that customer service representative didn't mess up. Going to https://www.united.com/en/us/manageres/mytrips, the trip is not marked as canceled, but instead most of the ticket information has disappeared.

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Does United have fully refundable tickets?

United Airlines has a 24-hour flexible booking policy that allows for a full refund of the fare if a ticket is cancelled or changed within 24 hours of booking. For example, if you book a ticket on United at 8 p.m., you have until 8 p.m. the next day to cancel the ticket and get a full refund.

Does United Airlines refund within 24 hours?

Refund policy overview Basic Economy tickets are not eligible for changes, but are eligible for a full refund inside 24 hours of booking as long as you completed your purchase one week or more before the original scheduled departure flight.

What is the difference between economy and economy fully refundable on United?

Unlike Basic Economy and regular Economy tickets, flexible fare tickets are refundable with no questions asked. However, if you decide to change flights instead of requesting a refund, you may be required to pay additional fees.

Does United allow 24-hour hold?

As United's 24-hour free hold policy specifically excludes flights booked within less than seven days of departure and American's policy within two days of departure, you could feasibly book with an OTA in these instances and still have the ability to cancel within 24 hours of booking.

United Airlines Cancellation Policy! How to Cancel United Airlines Flight Ticket?

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