I wanted to thank those of you who answered my questions about canceling a fully refundable ticket and rebooking for a lower price. I just did it and it was pretty straightforward. Because I’m an anxious person, I called United first for guidance and they were very helpful!
We are traveling to Rome/returning from Milan next May. I know that’s a long time away, but because hotels were booking up and we already had our tour dates, I started looking at airfares at the beginning of August. We had decided to splurge on Polaris class for the red eye and to return premium plus, and we wanted nonstop flights. From the beginning to the end of August prices just kept going up, and with limited Polaris seats I got nervous they’d just keep getting higher. When the price (still pretty high) dropped by several hundred dollars I bit the bullet and bought. I’ve checked back once or twice since and the prices were pretty much the same.
Today I checked again, and the flights plus tax for the 2 of us were $900 cheaper than what I originally paid. I called United and the customer service rep advised me to rebook first (I didn’t know it was possible to double book) and once the new flights were confirmed, to then immediately find the record number for the initial purchase and hit cancel. It was that simple! A few minutes later I was able to go into the United app to change our Polaris seats back to the ones we’d originally booked that were now freed up with the cancellation. I did have to book with a different credit card since I had to book the second time before canceling the first because otherwise I would have exceeded my credit limit.
Obviously I’ll keep checking in case the fare drops significantly again— there’s a lot of time between now and May. Again, thanks everyone for your guidance and I’m really glad to know this is easy to do!