I wish we could've all been so lucky lol. I've got an award with Copa, can't be cancelled or rebooked online, despite being booked via their website. I've got an SQ award (on partners) which can't be cancelled or altered online, finally got through to them after 4 total hold hours over the past two days, now I'm waiting for them to call me back...flight is in 12 hours. Aeroplan, when I finally did get ahold of them, she brushed me aside pretty quickly, professionally though, I don't wanna say she was rude, but there was no chit chat, very few details, said "no problem, I'll cancel it, no fee, you'll get an email in the next couple days with your taxes etc being refunded, you'll get back 122,595 miles". I asked how they came up with that number, the award cost me 165,000 I had already flown 1 way to europe in J, so 55,000, I figured I'd get back 110,000. I even admitted that to her, and she basically just said "I'm not really sure, they do their calculations, this is what my supervisor told me". Sure enough, those miles are in my account, and I got the email today (like 3-5 days later) with my refund of just under $300. Gotta be honest, I'm not sure the dollars are exactly right, not sure if the miles are exactly right, but I was quite satisfied with the service. She got me on the phone, got done with me quickly and moved on. My AP booking was never able to be changed/cancelled online, presumably because it was a max segment max miles mini-rtw on like 8 different partner airlines.

Now DL has the best procedure, no show your flight and you'll automatically get an e-Cert for the value within 24 hours. Brilliant. Keep the phone lines open for people who didn't book online, or have codeshares or whatever and need the phone reps.

For the OP, be patient, be persistent and don't call unless the flight is coming up within the next few days. You're just cancelling, if you can ride it out a little bit longer, just wait. Let people attempt to get home from abroad first then the phone lines will hopefully open up a little bit.