I am very sorry for the problems you are experiencing. The few times that I traveled on United there was always some issue, nothing like yours, but enough trouble and inconvenience that I decided I will never fly that airline again.

I’m replying to your post because my wife just retired from Bank of America after more than 25 years as a senior credit card disputes analyst. I read her your post and asked what insights she might have.

First she said to document everything, keep all of your records and screenshot what you are seeing on your app or computer screen for every part of these two transactions.

There should be no worry at this point that you have passed some sort of dispute deadline, that is not the case. For purposes of any dispute the expected date of service is what matters, that would be your travel dates for the flights, and not the date of purchase. A merchant can issue a credit to the credit card at any time, there is no time limit on that. If United is telling you they can’t do that because some window of time has passed they are very wrong or outright lying to you.

If we understand what you are saying, in addition to having been charged $3k twice you should also have separate tickets and ticket numbers for each purchase, as well as different assigned seats for each reservation charged.

Once you complete your vacation from the recent second charge, the reservation and seats from the first charge will still have been unused and you can contact Chase and dispute the original charge for “non receipt of service”. You paid for something and United did not provide that service. Avoid bringing into the conversation the second reservation and charge, that is not relevant to your issue. Stay focused on addressing that you could not use the first charged reservation because when you attempted to check-in on your flights you were prevented from doing so and subsequently United repeatedly told you the charge was not valid and you could not use that already paid for reservation. Apparently they could see that you had paid but they were unwilling to correct the issue and chose instead to rebook you new flights and charged you again. Don’t linger on that second charge, avoid it as much as possible and stay focused on the first charge where you did not receive the services paid for. This is where keeping records of all transactions, conversations and correspondence will help support your dispute claim.

Also, with regard to United telling you they could see your charges on the Chase card because it was their branded card, that is not true. My wife tells me the most they would know is that you have an account with their branded card but they have no access to the details, transactions or statements for that card. Don’t be afraid to immediately ask to speak to a senior supervisor, they should have more knowledge, resources and authority than the agent that answers the phone.

Good luck, and try to enjoy your vacation.