Why did United Airlines cancel my return flight?

A: United shouldn’t have canceled your return trip. Youwere on the outbound flight toWashington. You had a round-trip ticket. You should have been able to fly home. End of story.

Unfortunately, that’s not what happened. You recall some confusion at the gate, andUnited did not have a record of you on your outbound flight. Canceling the return is a normal— and understandable— industrywide policy. If you miss your outbound flight, an airline assumes your seat will fly empty on the return aswell. Canceling the ticket allows the airline to resell the seat.

When you toldUnited that youwere on the flight toWashington and offered to showit proof, it should

I recently flew from Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport to Ronald ReaganWashington National Airport onUnited Airlines. The gate where Iwas boarding in Chicagowas a shared gate with anotherUnited flight leaving about the same time, and therewas much confusion boarding both flights with shared gate attendants and ticket scanners.

When I tried to confirmmy return flight home, I found thatmy confirmation numberwas no longer valid becauseUnited had canceledmy return flight, claiming that I did not usemy seat from Chicago to Washington.

AUnited representative told me thatmy returnflight seat had been sold and that if Iwanted to return to Chicago, I needed to book another flight, pay a $200 change fee and then attempt to receive a refund fromUnited Airlines for the change fee. Ultimately, United denied me this refund.

All Iwant ismy $200 fee returned andmy miles for Chicago toWashington credited tomyUnited Airlines account considering I tookmy original flight. Can you help?

— Michael DelMedico, Park Ridge, Ill. have been an easy fix. But the system isn’t set up like that. After an automatic cancellation, your seat is released into the airline’s inventory, and you need to go through the booking process again. A $200 change fee is a given. Never mind that these change fees are nothing more than a money grab. (Does it cost the airline $200 to change a ticket? No.)

It’s not clear whyUnited insisted on charging you again and then asked you to go through the refund process. That’s probably a function of its accounting system, as opposed to the way itwould handle customer service. I imagine there areUnited employees whowould havewanted to fix this, but their hands

were tied.

But remember, there’s always someone higher up the chain of command who can make an exception. I list their names, numbers and email addresses onmy consumeradvocacywebsite: www.elliott.org/com pany-contacts/united -airlines.

I contacted the airline on your behalf, and it refunded the $200 and credited your miles.

Christopher Elliott is the ombudsman forNational Geographic Traveler magazine and the author of “How to Be theWorld’s Smartest Traveler.” You can read more travel tips on his blog, or email him at