Jan 11, 2014, 10:36 am
Last edit by: TEDisgone
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:
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.
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)(number updated to +1 866 919 0081 as of February 2024). #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.
Cancellation of Lifemiles ticket
Feb 25, 2014, 7:46 am
#182
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: ATL
Programs: Shamelessly Gold at Flying Burrito and AirTrain A+ Elite. Turkish Star Gold, 100k at Flying Eskimo
Posts: 742
Cancelled Lifemiles Ticket - Another datapoint
Booked a Lifemiles ticket on United metal. Had to cancel it within 24hr of booking because one in the party of two cannot make it.
--> Should not have to pay anything for a ticket touching the US but good luck with that. Not reimbursed for the $25 issuing fee and still had to pay the $50 to get the X miles redeposit.
---> Reservation had two tickets A and B, I wanted to cancel only one (B) of them. Ouch, I understand this is difficult but San Salvador agent claims he can do it. Holy cows!
Two days later:
----> On United, the two tickets are still valid, and ticketed. Called United and they are both still good to go!
----> On Lifemiles, I see that I have been reinstated twice the miles (i.e. 2*X) In other terms, both tickets had their miles reinstated. (accounting for the miles and cash --> miles only)
----> On the website, under My Lifemiles and Print Your Receipts, I only see one receipt for one cancellation. I should be able to click to see the receipt but of course this leads to a blank page on chrome (this is Lifemiles). Still, the summary say $50 for the amount of miles of one ticket redeposit (X). On I.E., the receipt prints corerctly and just mention the fee to redeposit the miles and nothing else.
Question:
Anyone with experience can tell me what is happening?
What is next? Will they cancel one ticket? Will they cancel both tickets? Wil they wait till the last day to cancel both tickets?
I think I am screwed and calling will probably yield no more information given their level of "unability to achieve".
--> Should not have to pay anything for a ticket touching the US but good luck with that. Not reimbursed for the $25 issuing fee and still had to pay the $50 to get the X miles redeposit.
---> Reservation had two tickets A and B, I wanted to cancel only one (B) of them. Ouch, I understand this is difficult but San Salvador agent claims he can do it. Holy cows!
Two days later:
----> On United, the two tickets are still valid, and ticketed. Called United and they are both still good to go!
----> On Lifemiles, I see that I have been reinstated twice the miles (i.e. 2*X) In other terms, both tickets had their miles reinstated. (accounting for the miles and cash --> miles only)
----> On the website, under My Lifemiles and Print Your Receipts, I only see one receipt for one cancellation. I should be able to click to see the receipt but of course this leads to a blank page on chrome (this is Lifemiles). Still, the summary say $50 for the amount of miles of one ticket redeposit (X). On I.E., the receipt prints corerctly and just mention the fee to redeposit the miles and nothing else.
Question:
Anyone with experience can tell me what is happening?
What is next? Will they cancel one ticket? Will they cancel both tickets? Wil they wait till the last day to cancel both tickets?
I think I am screwed and calling will probably yield no more information given their level of "unability to achieve".
Last edited by Minos; Feb 25, 2014 at 8:30 am
Feb 25, 2014, 9:39 am
#183
Join Date: May 2012
Location: MUC
Programs: BA Gold, AA Plat, TK*G, UA*G
Posts: 51
No they will cancel the tickets after they refunded you the taxes so after 6-7 days but they are already set to S for suspended so they are invalid
So don't worry you will get everything back and nothing went wrong
So don't worry you will get everything back and nothing went wrong
Feb 25, 2014, 10:28 am
#184
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: ATL
Programs: Shamelessly Gold at Flying Burrito and AirTrain A+ Elite. Turkish Star Gold, 100k at Flying Eskimo
Posts: 742
By the way, do you know where I could actually see the status "S" of a ticket? Checkmytrip does not show this status...
Minos
Last edited by Minos; Feb 25, 2014 at 11:58 am
Feb 25, 2014, 10:48 am
#185
Join Date: May 2012
Location: MUC
Programs: BA Gold, AA Plat, TK*G, UA*G
Posts: 51
No what you see on Check my trip is the PNR, but the important thing is the E-Ticket which you can only see if you have GDS access. The Eticket can have different status codes like O for open or S for Suspended or even V for Void.
Feb 25, 2014, 8:27 pm
#186
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: ATL
Programs: Shamelessly Gold at Flying Burrito and AirTrain A+ Elite. Turkish Star Gold, 100k at Flying Eskimo
Posts: 742
Guess I should have cancelled both tickets and rebooked a single one. Would have saved me many headaches!
Feb 26, 2014, 10:03 am
#187
Join Date: Feb 2010
Location: YVR
Posts: 1,465
So there is no way for me to check which ticket is Open or Void on the internet? Hmm... Guess I'll find out at the airport or find a travel agent who can find this out for me!
Guess I should have cancelled both tickets and rebooked a single one. Would have saved me many headaches!
Guess I should have cancelled both tickets and rebooked a single one. Would have saved me many headaches!
http://www.saudiairlines.com
Manage Bookings -> e-Ticket
Feb 26, 2014, 4:01 pm
#188
Join Date: Mar 2009
Location: LAF, VIE
Programs: A3 *G; AA EXP
Posts: 509
Feb 27, 2014, 7:55 am
#190
Join Date: Jul 2005
Location: Toronto
Programs: DL, AA, AV, AC
Posts: 83
Has anybody cancelled a ticket to the good old chainsaw? Tried two agents, neither could do it. Agent #1 hung up when he was supposed to transfer me to another agent. Called again, this time a different agent sounded like she knew what she was doing, but then said she could cancel the flight reservation but had problem pulling up the transaction on Lifemiles to refund miles. In the end, she asked me to call back later.
Feb 28, 2014, 8:01 pm
#193
Join Date: Sep 2005
Location: SIN
Programs: SQ, UA, Delta, BMI(RIP), Marriott Lifetime Titanium, Hilton Diamond (Thanks Amex) Hyatt Discov
Posts: 1,942
But surely OP has paid good money and some miles, albeit a lot less than expected, for the chainsaw ticket, and would want to be refunded both miles and the taxes or cash portion of miles plus cash (albeit back in miles). You can't expect him to forgo all that.
Mar 1, 2014, 1:18 am
#194
Join Date: Oct 2009
Location: OSL
Programs: BA Gold | SK Gold | A3 Gold
Posts: 4,553
Well you can also cancel after departure, so all is not lost. Sometimes its better to just no show and then cancel afterwards if you think the situation is too complicated and the agent will mess it up.
But I'm curious to know what 'chainsaw' is?
But I'm curious to know what 'chainsaw' is?