So yesterday my grandparents were flying from Newark to Midland (via Houston) and there flight kept getting delayed in Newark due to thunderstorms in the area. Eventually the flight got so delayed that they would miss their connection in Houston.
Well it turns out that it was not only the last flight of the day, but the last available flight for the next 4 days to Midland. Consequentially, the gate agent suggested that my grandparents stay back and request a refund for the flight. Since the airport could not process the refund, they promised that they would mark the ticket as not used.
Roll the clock forward three hours. My grandfather was on the phone with United customer service (with a hold time of over 2 hours) and they had refunded my grandmother’s ticket because it was clearly marked as not flown. My grandfather’s ticket however was marked as flown and the agent said that he was flying as of that moment.
Anyway after explaining the situation, the agent still insisted that he go back to the airport to get the ticket marked as unused. By this point he was already an hour away from the airport, it was pouring rain outside, and it was almost midnight.
I tried calling an agent and explained the situation but the response was the same. Both times the agent didn’t even want to contact a supervisor or the airport to fix the problem.
At this point I was little frustrated by the combined 4 hours of phone time we had put in (and a little worried that I wouldn’t get a refund) and DMed United: 
I didn’t expect any response given United’s reputation for poor response. However they surprised me when they finally responded (after 5 hours). This certainly seemed acceptable given the mess at Newark Airport yesterday. Within a matter of minutes, the entire situation was sorted out and a refund was issued. Shout out to “^DP” and the whole twitter team on saving us a trip to the airport to confirm that he hadn’t boarded the aircraft.
I still find it puzzling that the agent over the phone couldn’t easily confirm that a passenger had not boarded the flight. Isn’t that a problem for the airline if it doesn’t have a proper passenger account of who did and did not fly?
Anyway this was the first useful and better than phone line response I’ve ever gotten on United. How has your experience been as of late?
