Cancelling a Z fare!?!

Hi I'm looking for advice.

I may need to cancel my Z fare to Orlando later this year, I'm well aware that the conditions of a Z fare are clear in that it is non-refundable.

However I booked my flight on virgin metal through continental as it was cheaper, and although again the fare rules state it is a non refundable flight, I have the printout from when I booked the flight and it states under Terms and conditions " This ticket is refundable. View the full fare rules"

Obviously now my booking is held on the United website after the Merger, and when I log into the booking and ask to cancel it is offering a full refund on to my Amex , however it goes on to say that all refunds will be subject to a full audit prior to any refund being processed.

My question, am I going to be refunded or are they going to"audit" and say that a z fare is non refundable, and then I lose the flight and lose my money?

I'm not sure I want to take the risk, as I could still travel though it would be 100% easier for me if I could cancel and re-book at some stage in the future!


Any thoughts gratefully received

[Neil]

Well as you correctly say, Z fares are non-refundable, so I imagine it would be the case for you - however I guess a call might be a good start to see what they say initially.

I did ring earlier, and the agent eventually said it would be fully refunded but to be honest didn't seem to be sure, he just said if my printout Said it was refundable then they'd refund me!

[Neil]

Could you not ask for the refund to be done over the phone, that way you should know straight away if it can be done or not?

An interesting idea, and one I can't believe I didn't think of and try myself ?|

UA do not issue a refund just like that even for a full Y ticket. They send it off to the audit dept to make sure that the correct ammount is refunded etc. However, they are fairly flexible and in my experience are more interested in the value rather than the details of the refund conditons.

Plus - UA have a policy that you can change your mind and use the value towards another ticket with them within 12 months so the money is not lost.

Thanks for the info, thankfully my issue with work has vanished and I will be able to travel as planned!

In any event, there's always a big difference between the fare bucket (literally what Z is) and the fare basis, which would be something like Zxxxxx (though not necessarily, believe it or not, could be a Yup fare and look something like Hxxxxx, for example). At least on UA, and AA, not sure how VS do it.

It's not the case necessarily that all Z bucket fares will be non-refundable, therefore. This is especially true now that sale fares have a different fare bucket on UA (P, I believe) as opposed to being Zs that are priced lower. But you might simply have lucked out into a Z fare whose basis happens to be refundable, and fully so, too (sometimes they will be refundable minus 300 bucks, say, which is still a pretty good deal). If so, consider yourself lucky and comforted in the knowledge that if things go wrong again you will be able to have your ticket refunded