Item: United Airlines
Rating: 1

Guest's review of United Airlines

“No refunds for my illness”

★☆☆☆☆

written by on 15/05/2013

Last week I was diagnosed with cancer and I requested a refund from United Airlines. I attached a copy of a letter from my surgeon stating that I needed to cancel my travel arrangements. Today I received the following response from United:
"Thank you for contacting Customer Refund Services regarding the above referenced ticket.

We regret that we cannot issue the refund requested, and would like to explain why; exceptions due to illness are granted based on the ability to travel in the future. The illness, as described in your correspondence, does not qualify for an exception. Please be advised that your ticket is valid for one year from the date of issue, and may be used toward the purchase of another United Airlines ticket. If the fare of the new ticket is higher than that of the original, you will be charged the additional amount, plus the applicable reissue fee when the new ticket is issued. If this reservation has not been canceled or to make a new reservation, please call 1-800-525-0280 or visit our website. If we can be of further assistance, please contact one of our Customer Service Representatives.

Thank you for choosing United Airlines, we look forward to serving you in the near futur."

I am due to have surgery next Monday and the follow up treatment will take 18 to 24 months. How the heck can a 68 year old person suffering from cancer travel within the next year!!

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Mdaisy69's Comment

Written on: 18/10/2013

I'm so sorry to hear about your diagnosis. I too was diagnosed with cancer and had to cancel a trip. My husband and I were each issued a travel certificate. My husband tried to use them to book a trip and was told he could only use one per trip. So, that left me with mine. I tried to use it and was told it had already been used, by someone named Thomas. That's all the info they would give me and basically said it was my fault for not "guarding" my certificate. Not sure what that means since the certificate was just code I got over the phone. I wish you luck with your refund and most of all with your health.

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Vrlm's Comment

Written on: 18/10/2013

Hi, thank you for your kind words and I am sorry to hear that you too have been diagnosed with cancer. I don’t think anybody really understands the disease unless they or somebody close to them is suffering from it.

I never got a refund from United Airlines but thankfully I had travel insurance and was able to claim most of the cost of my flights. So United Airlines made a tidy profit from me. I cancelled my flights, they kept my money and were then able to sell the tickets to other passengers. I am still receiving treatment for cancer and in the meantime, I have been diagnosed with a new cancer (triple negative breast cancer) which has a very low survival rate so even if I had opted to travel against the wishes of my surgeon, I wouldn’t have been well enough to travel before the tickets expired.

I wish you all the best with your treatment and hope you make a full and speedy recovery.

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Mdaisy69's Comment

Written on: 19/10/2013

I'm so sorry about the new diagnosis. I hope you have a good support system in your family and friends. I was diagnosed with breast cancer last year, after my daughter was born. I am one of the lucky ones that caught it before it spread.

I wish you all the best in your fight and pray you beat this thing!

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Guest's review of United Airlines