Requesting a refund for a refundable ticket on United?

I had good luck using the "Message" function on the United phone app when I cancelled my trip last September. In my case I was able to invoke the "Unacceptable Schedule Change" clause (more than two hours in my case) to get a full refund, even though the original booking wasn't refundable.

You might try doing this and when you get connected to the agent just start with "I want to cancel this refundable booking."

Thanks Alan for that suggestion with United. I will try that later today. It should be straightforward since we paid for that flexibility, so i"ll keep my fingers crossed!

Tom, thanks for your suggestion on American. The vast majority of flights listed for all the airlines have us fly from Dulles to JFK or Newark, then onward, which I want to avoid. When I filter out domestic airports, the choice of days is more limited. I'll keep searching.

We signed up for the RS Best of Spain tour which starts in Barcelona, where we'll add time for a day trip or two, and ends in Seville where we'll add a night or two. From Seville, we'll travel to Cordova for a few nights, then back to Madrid, where we will have spent three nights already, to fly home.

Did you check British Airways? They offer IAD to Madrid and BCN back to IAD (connecting through Heathrow) in April/May for $1437 in Premium Economy.

Edit—-I see I for the Spain cities backwards, but it should be similar for flying in into Barcelona and out from Madrid.

We had a great experience with our flight to BCN on BA in May 2019. Our flight from SEA to Heathrow was late and cut the connection time very short. BA had the Barcelona passengers deplane first ( everyone else, even First Class passengers, had to wait) and we were escorted to the next terminal for the flight, which was held to wait for us (there were 16 of us in all).

Alan, the message function worked for me, thanks. It was surprisingly easy. Trying to be super cautious with our money in their hands, I first tried calling them. After being on hold for an hour, I decided to try messaging. After “Chatbot” greeted me, it was pretty straightforward and they said I’d get a refund in up to 21 days.

Tom and Lola, I have looked at both American and British Airways, and they both have options for us. United does as well as TAP, but I don’t know much about them. Transfers are done in Lisbon. We haven’t quite worked out departure and return dates yet., but it’s good to know we have choices.

Thank you all for your input.

Just to follow up--I received the refund for our flights today, 1/14/2022, just four days after my request for a refund! I was expecting to wait the full 21 days mentioned.

Again, thanks Alan for the suggestion to use messaging for the request. It gives me confidence to book our flights to Spain with refundable fares with United. They do seem to have the best options for us, after much searching.