Old Jan 11, 2014, 10:36 am
FlyerTalk Forums Expert How-Tos and Guides
Last edit by: centrifuge41
WARNING - The cancellation fee has been increased up to $200 for long haul premium awards as of Feb 2017 .

T&Cs here:
How to cancel a Lifemiles ticket:
  • Lifemiles tickets cannot be canceled or changed online, you need to call the Avianca/TACA call center (+1 800 284 2622). #2 for English, then enter your Lifemiles number, enter #3 for Lifemiles then #3 again for transactions.
  • The cancellation fee is variable, $50-200. The change-fee is $150. This is per passenger/ticket. If you cancel, you will not get back the $25 booking fee paid when the ticket was issued.
  • The cancellation fee for Awards booked after 20th/2/2017: Award Tickets are reimbursable by paying a fee that varies depending on the redeemed route, the redemption channel and other circumstances, Accurate information of the reimbursement cost shall be informed at the time of redeeming the Award Ticket. If you cancel, you will not get back the $25 booking fee paid when the ticket was issued.
  • You need to set-up a phone PIN to do any changes to tickets on lifemiles.com before or during the call. Do this before you call as doing this while calling can add a couple of minutes to the call
  • Make sure your address and phone number are up to date in your lifemiles account. This will help immensely as spelling out everything letter-by-letter to the phone agent.
  • Your credit card information is collected via an automated system on the phone and not by the agent. The system first asks you for your card number (Visa, Mastercard, or American Express), followed by the expiration month/year in MMYY format, then followed by the Security Code. Press * to correct mistakes in entering numbers.
  • You need to enter/confirm credit card information for every ticket seperately. The process is simpler for remaining tickets as you only need to: first confirm the last 4 digits of the card (1 - Yes; 2 - No); followed by the expiration Month; followed by the expiration Year; followed by the Security code. For AMEX,(and sometimes for visa too ) the whole cared number has to be entered again
  • Similarly if you have used credit cards before, the system keeps information about your credit cards, so even for the first ticket, the process is simpler as you only need to confirm the last four digits of credit card, then expiration month, then expiration year last two digits only followed by the security code
  • Be prepared to spend between 20 minutes and 3 hours on the phone to get your changes / cancellation done, depending on the agent you get, or if you're really unlucky, you may spend days getting it sorted out.
  • Avianca transactions may trigger fraud alerts on your credit card, you may need to contact your bank about this.
  • Miles should be back in your account instantaneously, tax refund can take longer (2-3 weeks)
  • Money paid for miles purchased as part of "more money/less miles" choice will NOT be refunded in cash but as miles.
  • As soon as your flight is ticketed, the refund for a cash & miles booking will be only in miles
  • BE PATIENT: some agents are very knowledgeable and fast, others take hours to get a simple cancellation done
  • TAXES ARE REFUNDABLE: if an agent claims that taxes are non-refundable you may need to write an email to [email protected] to follow-up
  • You should be able to see your cancellation receipts under "Your Lifemiles" - "Print receipts" (Only works with Internet Explorer!)
  • NEW RULE - Ticket cannot be cancelled in the T-48 to T+24 window. Ticket can be cancelled after T+24 as long as ticket is valid, which is up to 365 days after issuance date (not travel date!)

Some agents have stated that the ticket can be cancelled even AFTER the flight dates, as long as the ticket is "open". Confirmed by FTers @ #334, 336, 371 and 445.
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Cancellation of Lifemiles ticket

Old Jul 1, 2013, 1:50 pm
  #61  
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Originally Posted by SingaporeDon
The CSR claimed it was stored when you enter card details for the $50 payment, but unfortunately when I tried to ticket online today, the supposedly stored credit card did not show up. So not sure how you get them to store your credit card details to make online or $50 penalty payments on phone easier
SingaporeDon,

yes even if it's stored in their system you can't use it to make payments online, only those on the phone. For me it was either the cancellation or the change fee that i charged to the "stored credit card"
synd is offline  
Old Jul 1, 2013, 1:50 pm
  #62  
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Originally Posted by aboerr
But, I think some people reported they got the cash back instead of miles some time ago.
You get cash back only if you call and cancel before the ticket is actually issued. So for example if you booked something which was not automatically ticketed, called 2 minutes later and cancelled, you would get $$ back.

The actual miles purchase happens when the trip is ticketed, so after that event, all refunds are in miles.

You do get taxes back in both cases.
sj22 is offline  
Old Jul 9, 2013, 7:38 am
  #63  
 
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Canceled an award today. Quite straightforward, took an even 9 minutes for the entire call. Good agent, said that the credit card would be stored after payment.
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Old Aug 8, 2013, 1:43 am
  #64  
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Originally Posted by SingaporeDon
Quick Data point
Called US number 1 800 284 2642
Got through to Columbia
CSR Phillip spoke good English, asked for 4 digit PIN to be entered in the system
Asked for ticket number (surprisingly, the Lifemiles ticket confirmation email did not have ticket number, but I got it from My Flights!)
Told me cancellation fee is $50 and asked me to enter Credit card number in the automated system which went through on the second attempt
CSR came back on line, double checked that I wanted to cancel the ticket for sure, did it in 30 seconds, confirmed that I will get miles back in 72 hours, and taxes back in 2-3 months!!
He also claimed that once I had entered the credit card number in the system today, I will be captured in my Lifemiles details, so next time I am buying a ticket on the phone, I don't need to give the CSR my credit card details again on the phone

Total time taken, about 10 minutes!!
US number 1 800 284 2642 is wrong, should be .... 2622.

Did mine last night and took almost 20 minutes. Needed to do the CC details another round as he had set it up with my GFs name (where the miles came from). Other than that and the bad Skype line it wasnt too bad, and I received conf mails on refund charges some hours later. No miles yet.
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Old Sep 20, 2013, 4:57 am
  #65  
 
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Do they refund the $25 booking fee?
1k650 is offline  
Old Sep 30, 2013, 5:25 pm
  #66  
 
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Took me 50minutes today to cancel a ticket and Im not even convinced it has been cancelled. Called the US number and the English speaking guy was professional enough with good English but he brought a guy from lifemiles on the phone and they continued back and forth in Spanish for what felt like hours.

The whole process was painful. Am I unusual to get such a bad experience?
Enigma368 is offline  
Old Sep 30, 2013, 6:31 pm
  #67  
 
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Originally Posted by 1k650
Do they refund the $25 booking fee?
no
SingaporeDon is offline  
Old Sep 30, 2013, 6:32 pm
  #68  
 
Join Date: Sep 2005
Location: SIN
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Posts: 1,940
Originally Posted by Enigma368
Took me 50minutes today to cancel a ticket and Im not even convinced it has been cancelled. Called the US number and the English speaking guy was professional enough with good English but he brought a guy from lifemiles on the phone and they continued back and forth in Spanish for what felt like hours.

The whole process was painful. Am I unusual to get such a bad experience?
I just cancelled two days ago, and my experience was exactly the opposite. Very efficient, the same guy did everything. Took 10/15 minutes at best. The ticket showed cancelled on My Flights in a short while, and got confirmation emails for the $50 charge plus cancellation of the ticket in a few hours
SingaporeDon is offline  
Old Sep 30, 2013, 6:33 pm
  #69  
 
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Originally Posted by travelkid
US number 1 800 284 2642 is wrong, should be .... 2622.

Did mine last night and took almost 20 minutes. Needed to do the CC details another round as he had set it up with my GFs name (where the miles came from). Other than that and the bad Skype line it wasnt too bad, and I received conf mails on refund charges some hours later. No miles yet.
Sorry, realised that when I had to call them two days ago, and I looked up my old post and saw the error in the number. Fixed now!
SingaporeDon is offline  
Old Sep 30, 2013, 7:43 pm
  #70  
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Just called to cancel a SQ LAX-SIN Booking for 2 PAX

The gentleman was very nice, and conferenced in with Bogata or Columbia LM Centre.
CC was on file some how, they asked me to enter my pin 2x (presumably 1x for each ticket)
$50 fee per ticket, Informed 3% of the taxes will be lost to bank fees.
Miles Back in 72 Hrs, Taxes back in 3 months.

25 Minutes total.
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Old Oct 5, 2013, 8:07 am
  #71  
 
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Does it really take 3 months for the taxes to be refunded?
SilverChris is offline  
Old Oct 5, 2013, 5:16 pm
  #72  
 
Join Date: Nov 2005
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Anyone here has experience canceling a LifeMiles award ticket with a significant schedule change and got the $50 fee waived for redeposit? I have a 100 minutes sked change in one of my reservations.
Angeleno228 is offline  
Old Nov 8, 2013, 8:19 am
  #73  
 
Join Date: May 2009
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Cancelled a ticket 13 hours before a flight. My positioning flight got delayed, making it impossible to connect. I wanted to change the LM ticket but there was no flight for the next day. Overall, took 50mins but generally, quite painless
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Old Nov 8, 2013, 10:54 am
  #74  
 
Join Date: Sep 2001
Location: Singapore
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Has anyone ever got any money back from these people ?

They ticketed my flight incorrectly, have been promising a refund which has taken more than the promised 10 / 20 / 30 / 60 days (depends who you talk to and when) to get to me so I've had to raise a claim with AmEx and complain to them in person at the World Travel Market this week.
Singapore_Air is offline  
Old Nov 8, 2013, 2:53 pm
  #75  
 
Join Date: Jun 2013
Posts: 194
the cancellation call took me two hours with two agents

after holding for 55 mins a Friday night after 11:00 pm cst, first agent processed my cancellation request, believe or not, suddenly, he told me that he was about to off work, and told me that another female agent can help to process. the whole process took me almost two hours
lisa2926 is offline  

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