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
Oct 22, 2014, 1:35 am
#361
Join Date: Jul 2010
Location: Between AMS and BRU
Posts: 8,852
A lot of awards allow this.... and it's a much needed feature because when cancelling shortly before departure you might run into an agent that has no clue :-).
Oct 22, 2014, 3:44 am
#362
Join Date: Sep 2005
Location: SIN
Programs: SQ, UA, Delta, BMI(RIP), Marriott Lifetime Titanium, Hilton Diamond (Thanks Amex) Hyatt Discov
Posts: 1,942
Apparently you can cancel the Lifemiles redemption ticket long after the flight. Not sure if many other airlines allow this.
Oct 22, 2014, 8:51 am
#363
Join Date: Sep 2012
Location: SFO
Posts: 224
Other award programs do allow you to cancel after the flight has departed, as RTW1 alluded to. I've done it with non-Lifemiles award tickets.
Oct 30, 2014, 7:17 pm
#365
Join Date: Nov 2013
Location: TXL
Programs: A3 Silver
Posts: 1,116
Nov 6, 2014, 11:03 am
#366
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: SEA, but up and down the coast a lot
Programs: Oceanic Airlines Gold Elite
Posts: 20,397
Cancelled a ticket, they kept getting messages back that my card was being declined, I could see the charges coming on the card. Finally the rep and the billing department figured out what was going on (they messed up my address). 90 minute call.
Mental note- never cancel an AV award ticket under time pressure (fortunately there wasn't for this one, flight was tomorrow).
Mental note- never cancel an AV award ticket under time pressure (fortunately there wasn't for this one, flight was tomorrow).
Nov 6, 2014, 12:26 pm
#367
Join Date: Oct 2011
Posts: 3,839
Cancelled a ticket, they kept getting messages back that my card was being declined, I could see the charges coming on the card. Finally the rep and the billing department figured out what was going on (they messed up my address). 90 minute call.
Mental note- never cancel an AV award ticket under time pressure (fortunately there wasn't for this one, flight was tomorrow).
Mental note- never cancel an AV award ticket under time pressure (fortunately there wasn't for this one, flight was tomorrow).
Nov 7, 2014, 3:01 am
#368
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: SEA, but up and down the coast a lot
Programs: Oceanic Airlines Gold Elite
Posts: 20,397
Nov 20, 2014, 1:57 am
#369
Join Date: Sep 2014
Location: Melbourne, Australia
Programs: AY Platinum, UA Premier Platinum, OneWorld Emerald, VA Platinum
Posts: 558
Kicking off the cancellation process now (17:54 Australian time) with great trepidation.
Call 1: Called San Salvador number. Very helpful English speaking gentleman. Found booking. Entered PIN. All good. Confirmed $50 fee per pax. Then he "had trouble with the system" and they were "working on it" at 3:54 am local time?!?!?.. doubt it... and that I should call back in "around 4 hours".
I'll let you know about Call 2.
Call 1: Called San Salvador number. Very helpful English speaking gentleman. Found booking. Entered PIN. All good. Confirmed $50 fee per pax. Then he "had trouble with the system" and they were "working on it" at 3:54 am local time?!?!?.. doubt it... and that I should call back in "around 4 hours".
I'll let you know about Call 2.
Nov 20, 2014, 7:12 am
#370
Join Date: Apr 2002
Location: NYC
Posts: 9,125
Kicking off the cancellation process now (17:54 Australian time) with great trepidation.
Call 1: Called San Salvador number. Very helpful English speaking gentleman. Found booking. Entered PIN. All good. Confirmed $50 fee per pax. Then he "had trouble with the system" and they were "working on it" at 3:54 am local time?!?!?.. doubt it... and that I should call back in "around 4 hours".
I'll let you know about Call 2.
Call 1: Called San Salvador number. Very helpful English speaking gentleman. Found booking. Entered PIN. All good. Confirmed $50 fee per pax. Then he "had trouble with the system" and they were "working on it" at 3:54 am local time?!?!?.. doubt it... and that I should call back in "around 4 hours".
I'll let you know about Call 2.
Nov 26, 2014, 3:58 pm
#371
Join Date: Jun 2013
Programs: SPG Plat 100, A3*G
Posts: 678
Cancelled 2 tickets in 25 minutes 
I can now also confirm that it IS possible to cancel past tickets. This was my situation:
- booked SFO-PVR for Aug 6th
- a day before, IAH-PVR opened up and I booked that
- tried cancelling the SFO tickets but the system was down
- 3 separate agents said that you can cancel a ticket up to 1 YEAR of booking
Managed to cancel just now, 4 months after making the booking and already see the 60.000 miles in my account.
I can now also confirm that it IS possible to cancel past tickets. This was my situation:
- booked SFO-PVR for Aug 6th
- a day before, IAH-PVR opened up and I booked that
- tried cancelling the SFO tickets but the system was down
- 3 separate agents said that you can cancel a ticket up to 1 YEAR of booking
Managed to cancel just now, 4 months after making the booking and already see the 60.000 miles in my account.
Nov 26, 2014, 5:39 pm
#372
Join Date: Apr 2002
Location: NYC
Posts: 9,125
Cancelled 2 tickets in 25 minutes
I can now also confirm that it IS possible to cancel past tickets. This was my situation:
- booked SFO-PVR for Aug 6th
- a day before, IAH-PVR opened up and I booked that
- tried cancelling the SFO tickets but the system was down
- 3 separate agents said that you can cancel a ticket up to 1 YEAR of booking
Managed to cancel just now, 4 months after making the booking and already see the 60.000 miles in my account.
I can now also confirm that it IS possible to cancel past tickets. This was my situation:
- booked SFO-PVR for Aug 6th
- a day before, IAH-PVR opened up and I booked that
- tried cancelling the SFO tickets but the system was down
- 3 separate agents said that you can cancel a ticket up to 1 YEAR of booking
Managed to cancel just now, 4 months after making the booking and already see the 60.000 miles in my account.
Nov 27, 2014, 3:56 am
#374
Join Date: Mar 2013
Location: CDG
Programs: TK Elite
Posts: 1,611
Not exactly a cancellation but here what happened to me:
- Bought 2,000 miles for a friend in August, the transaction failed twice before working the third time
- I was debited 3 times though both in cash and miles.
- I emailed LM right away they responded quickly and said they were investigating.
- 2 weeks later they refunded the miles and said I'd get the money back within 20 business days.
- Early October I had received nothing so contacted them, they said there was a problem with my claim and it was being investigated.
- Every-time I emailed them they gave me the same old lame excuse that my claim was being escalated.
- Last week I gave them an ultimatum to refund me before escalating the request myself
- For the first time they no longer responded, but low and behold, this morning the refund finally came through!
- Bought 2,000 miles for a friend in August, the transaction failed twice before working the third time
- I was debited 3 times though both in cash and miles.
- I emailed LM right away they responded quickly and said they were investigating.
- 2 weeks later they refunded the miles and said I'd get the money back within 20 business days.
- Early October I had received nothing so contacted them, they said there was a problem with my claim and it was being investigated.
- Every-time I emailed them they gave me the same old lame excuse that my claim was being escalated.
- Last week I gave them an ultimatum to refund me before escalating the request myself
- For the first time they no longer responded, but low and behold, this morning the refund finally came through!
Nov 27, 2014, 9:25 am
#375
Join Date: Jun 2013
Programs: SPG Plat 100, A3*G
Posts: 678