AS award ticket cancellation policy
 

is it strictly 24 hours? or at 11:59 the next day?

AFAIK for those without MVPG or higher status, its 24 hours. Outside of that, a change fee is incurred. Note: Partner award booking fees are not refundable, even for AS elites.

Is this still policy current?

AS has Peace of Mind Waiver currently.
date to book has been extended to April 30, 2021. So, no change or cancel fees if booked by then. Includes, award travel.
Look to AS site for complete waiver disclosure.
For Saver, Main and First (non refundable) tickets purchased,- a Cancel to AS wallet or travel credit, not to original form of payment.

Not 100% sure but I thought award booking (cash) refunds went back to the credit card used. Maybe only for partner awards?

And it was always possible to cancel those at any time (could also be only for partner awards, I haven't used AS miles for AS flights much).

BTW: that's unrelated to the current covid waiver.

Thank you for the response!

The question is in regards to an award redemption with a fare in miles. Whether AS or Partner, a cancellation of an award itinerary booked during the Covid-19 waiver will result in a reinstatement of you miles & the fees & taxes will be credited back to your original form of payment. That would be your credit card since fees & taxes on awards require "new" money and therefore cannot be paid from your wallet.

Changes will be repriced in miles and fees & taxes. The process is to refund all the miles for the original itinerary and charge all the miles required for the "new" itinerary, even if the award price is the same. Any differential in fees & taxes will be a "net" charge or credit to the original form of payment which, again, is your credit card.

When the Covid-19 waivers finally expire, the cancellation fee will need to be paid before your miles are credited back to your account unless, of course, you have an Elite status waiver or cancelled within 24 hours. For the 24 hour waiver, the ticket must be purchased more than 24 hours before flight time. Within 24 hours, the cancellation fee will apply.

• This policy only applies to tickets booked for travel starting more than 24 hours from the time of purchase. If you change* or cancel tickets purchased within 24 hours of the scheduled departure time, your ticket is subject a $125 change fee.

If I cancel my award ticket, will I get my miles back?

Yes. Once you have canceled your ticket, and paid the cancellation fee, and requested that the miles be redeposited, your miles will go back into your account, and any taxes paid will be refunded. The call center booking fee, and the partner award fee are nonrefundable.

James

Excellent summary of AS' cancellation policies. One thing to add - if the airline cancels one or more of your flights or there is a 'significant' schedule change (IIRC +/- one hour or more is considered 'significant') then you are entitled to a waiver of the cancellation fee. Also, if the airline cancels then ask for the Partner booking fee back (if that is applicable).

Thanks, I was thinking more in terms of voluntary changes & cancellations. During Covid-19 waivers, AS has been refunding Partner award booking fees as a gesture and upon request, the policy remains that it is non-refundable and I anticipate that will be enforced when the waivers expire.

For carrier imposed significant changes and flight cancellations, AS will refund without fee for everyone, just as they do on revenue non-refundable fares. It is nice that AS has maintained the 60 minute window for refund to original form of payment and has not changed it like AA did to more than four hours.

James

I believe there are no fees to cancel an AS award ticket using AS miles for elites (I am currently MVPG75K via status match). I have not been able to verify this on the AS website. Could someone please direct me to where this is stated by AS? Many thanks.

AS now waives cancellation fees on awards. There is no need for a waiver for elites.

https://www.alaskaair.com/content/tr...my-reservation

AS-only awards don't book into X (Saver)- they are considered Main Cabin for the purposes of cancellation/changes even when under 12.5k (5k/7.5k/10k). I'm able to select exit row on a 7.5k award booking (which would not be possible on a Saver cash fare).

The website information is a bit confusing, so I called about my AS F award ticket, asking about mileage redeposit fees if the itinerary was cancelled. Agent said emphatically that there are no cancellation fees for redeposit of miles. I have no status with AS.

It is absolutely mind blowing how people on FT think “no change or cancel fees” means “well actually…”. This is just a total failure on AS’s part because the same link gets posted over and over and over again… and nobody understands “no change or cancel fees on awards”.

https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/alas...-1-2020-a.html

For some reason, UA's redeposit fee policy is crystal clear compared to AS. Maybe they have a better corporate communications department.