For consumers, one positive thing about the pandemic was that many airlines introduced more flexible policies when it comes to changing or canceling tickets. For example, with the ”big three” US carriers, you can now generally cancel a ticket, and apply the credit toward a future itinerary (there are exceptions, like basic economy tickets).
Continue reading: How United Flight Credits Work, And How To Extend Them
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
You could also buy a full flex ticket and then cancel it - that's how I did it 🙂
Combining credits may shorten their validity period. If you use two credits, remaining amount on the second credit will be made valid to the same date as first one. So make sure, you know, what you're doing.
If full flex same as refundable? What did you get back? Flight credit with new expiration? Credit back to your card for entire ticket amount (incl. flight credits previously held)?
I had some credit expiring Dec 31 so I found a random flight to anywhere for a few bucks more and booked it. Basic economy and canceled it a couple days later. I now have a new credit with a begin travel date for Dec 2024.
Very helpful information. I have a different problem which must be common among the guests: how to prevent our hard-earned miles from expiring. I have a lot of ANA miles which will expire in March 2024. Trying to find a decent award flights on ANA to Japan/Asia is like finding a pin in a haystack! Please let us know what we can extend our miles before they expire. Can we use them to buy any award ticket, then cancel it to extend them for another year?
I have a ticket booked for someone else where the extension trick did not work, it still claims the original expiry date when I try to cancel it.
I wonder if anyone from the OMAAT community can share advice on my situation:
I had some credits from COVID times. Soon after, I moved to Europe and had little use for those. A friend was flying from CDG to SFO, so I let her use my credits. However, she changed her itinerary and canceled the tickets. Now I have $1200 credits in my account under my friend's name. Can I ask UA to transfer those credits to a nameless certificate or at least to my name?
cancelled tickets ALWAYS refund to the "original" way of payment! If used travelcredut it will ge refunded as new travel credit if used Cash/creditcard for payment, it will be refunded to original form of payment used, even if that creditcard does NOT exist anymore, if used cash and travel credit it will be refunded just that way, the ticket was paid for, travel credit part and dash part! Simple as that.
This is happening to me too. On cancellation I have the same expiry date as before.
@STEFFL I bought ticket from my United travel bank and when the ticket was canceled, I thought the funds would go back to my travel bank. BUT NOPE, I got a travel credit that expires 1 years from date of purchase ... which is in 15 days.
Same thing happened to me twice because my friend I bought the ticket for has a husband who had a stroke and then another one! The first credit I called and got a new code so that anybody can use the credit. The second one I still need to call about. It is ridiculous that United Airlines issues credits in someone else's name in your account. I couldn't use it since it is not in my name and my friend has no access to my account to use it. The customer service rep I spoke to agreed, especially since I bought the tickets from my United travel bank. I thought the funds would just go back to my travel bank.
That’s not what united did to me. They took my extra $25 and put it in the same expiring travel credit even though I canceled within 24 hours. Then they refused my partial refund request.
Tried again for another $1, the new ticket shows the original ticketing date. So I suspect when I cancel I’ll get the same credit expiry date.
You have to cancel AFTER the 24 hour period. If you cancel during the initial 24 hour period the original expiration date is retained.
Thats the problem. You have to cancel AFTER the 24 hour period. If you cancel during the initial 24 hour period the original expiration date is retained.
I called United today, and there is NOTHING you can do to extend. If buying a new ticket with credits then canceling, you will still have the same expiration date and any extra funds will a year from purchase date. Don't try this folks. If it worked before, it will not work again.
I tried both cancelling before and cancelling after 24 hours. I tried using a refundable fare and a nonrefundable fare. Not sure what else I can try.
I wish that fixed it but it doesn’t. I didn’t look too hard for a cheap additional fare on this one since I thought worst case scenario at least the additional fare would be refunded. But no. And cancelling after 24 hours also doesn’t work.
Does anyone know if this also works for electronic travel vouchers? I bought some years ago when they had a mileage special. I did this trick a few years ago but I understood United stopped extending the expiration date on these a couple of years ago. I have four that expire at the end of December and we aren't going to be able to use them as I also think travel has to be completed before 12/31 rather than just redeemed. Anyone have experience with this issue? Thanks.
I was able to extend the future flight credits expiring with an extra step. As said in the blogpost, I booked a fully refundable flight for the credit amount plus extra and cancelled for a full refund. The extra step here was to use the change option to change the flight to another date before cancellation, a date after the expiration date. I ended up paying a $0.40 for the change. I was refunded all the extra payments to the original payment method and flight credit was basically extended for another year.
Caveat, this process had go through a united agent. Took 3-4 days for the credit to be approved after cancellation. I don’t know if it is a policy for refund or the agent was feeling benevolent, ymmv. I had around $750 in flight credits.
I did something by accident that worked - I booked flights we already had (booked on miles but cash fare got cheap). When they saw I was double booked, they cancel the cash fare booked with a credit and reissued the credit with the new date
I want to use some of my remaining credit to purchase food on my flights going and returning.
I tried the travel credit extension hack this month but it didn't work....does anyone know if they stopped allowing it? I have a TC expiring 3/31/24 and booked a refundable fare $5 over the TC amount; and waited 60 hours to cancel. The new expiration is still 3/31/24.
I am trying to extend a flight credit that is expiring in a month. What is the best way to do this? Does booking and cancelling after 24 hours still work?
The advice given for extending UA credits for another year, is incorrect, your original expiration date will always apply.
I called a few days ago to inquire about cancelling a flight. Was told by the United rep that I would be able to extend after the one year period just by requesting and telling them what my fare category was (Z and D, 1st and business). I later called back to actually cancel my flights and was told by another United rep something different. She said I have a year, period. And that they no longer allow extensions.
Didn't work for me. I waited for at least 1 week. It refund comes with the same expiration date.
What kind of ticket should I book to use the certificate and then cancel? Basic economy, economy, or economy plus? Because different type of ticket has different restictions.
I had a credit from a flight canceled 24 oct 23, it said that it will expire in 1 year. I went on to book a flight for 16 oct 24 and now it says that I can only use them if travel date is before 1 oct 24. called customer service and they said that is correct. So I'm getting screwed out of $910
can you use flight credit from a cancelled flight to rebook on the same flight again?
So when you booked another flight, you used the change option for another date or time, before you cancelled?
Hello, Is the credit automatic or are there conditions, such as having to provide a valid explanation for the cancellation?
i agree. The original expiration date will still apply even if you buy a new ticket and cancel it. I found out that the only works if your outbound flight is before the original expiration date.
Here what worked for me. Expiration date was May 15, 2025, booked random flights (economy) that costed ~ 10$ more than credit, difference paid by credit card, canceled 25 hours later, received new travel credit with exp date may 14, 2026.
Did You have to pay any cancellation fee being that you canceled it 24+ hours after? And seems like you booked the regular basic economy ticket.
I cancelled a flight from Cancun to Cleveland Ohio. This being my return flight from a roundtrip ticket. I was told by United I had credits for the cancelation and was given specific credit amount. However, when I search for the credit, nothing comes up. I tried making a reservation a flight on United calling Premier desk. They confirmed I had a credit. However, the stipulated the credit can only be used for a ticket leaving Cancun and not on any other flight. I am trying to use the credit for a flight to Lisbon. What gives?