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
Jan 26, 2020, 11:26 am
#736
Join Date: Dec 2000
Location: Philadelphia
Posts: 2,509
I too can report success in canceling two J intra-Asia tickets due to a schedule change. What was nice is that the schedule change was only 15 minutes but it was allowed (after some push-back). It took ~3 weeks to process but I was delighted to find the miles back in my account this morning.
Jan 28, 2020, 5:56 am
#738
Join Date: Oct 2012
Location: Tokyo
Programs: Marriott Plat, HH G,Hyatt E,*A Gold, OW Emerald.
Posts: 3,023
Jan 28, 2020, 9:50 am
#739
Join Date: Jan 2014
Location: SFO
Programs: OZ Diamond/*G, IHG Diamond Amb, Hilton Gold
Posts: 2,240
I think its actually quite a big deal if LM refuses to give refunds in this type of case when both global authorities and the operating airline are offering waivers as if AV flew to China they most certainly would be offering a waiver.
Jan 28, 2020, 4:21 pm
#741
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: USA
Programs: DL PM - IC RA - HHonors Gold - Hertz Gold - AA - US - CO - Choice Privileges
Posts: 1,668
Cal and cancel the ticket and live with the $200 less in your pocket. Time is money. Email customer service after the miles are redeposited for a waiver on the cancellation fee. The airline does have the advantage due to the location of the airline frequent flyer program (foreign country).
Last edited by view-with-a-room; Jan 28, 2020 at 4:27 pm
Feb 20, 2020, 7:22 am
#742
Join Date: Feb 2020
Posts: 1
Asiana Booked Through Lifemiles
I booked an Asiana flight through lifemiles. I called Asiana and they said they can cancel it for $30 and I would get my miles back. But I thought I had to cancel through Avianca directly and pay the $200 fee. Did I get misinformation?
Feb 20, 2020, 11:11 pm
#743
Join Date: Oct 2012
Location: Tokyo
Programs: Marriott Plat, HH G,Hyatt E,*A Gold, OW Emerald.
Posts: 3,023
If I were you, I would actually call their bluff and see if Asiana can actually work the magic of cancelling and refunding you Lifemiles!
You will simply get apologies and "misunderstanding", or a messed up ticket that neither Lifemiles nor Asiana can rectify/refund (they would just pass you back and forth blaming each other).
Feb 21, 2020, 12:22 am
#744
Join Date: Oct 2011
Posts: 3,839
misinformation.
If I were you, I would actually call their bluff and see if Asiana can actually work the magic of cancelling and refunding you Lifemiles!
You will simply get apologies and "misunderstanding", or a messed up ticket that neither Lifemiles nor Asiana can rectify/refund (they would just pass you back and forth blaming each other).
If I were you, I would actually call their bluff and see if Asiana can actually work the magic of cancelling and refunding you Lifemiles!
You will simply get apologies and "misunderstanding", or a messed up ticket that neither Lifemiles nor Asiana can rectify/refund (they would just pass you back and forth blaming each other).
Feb 22, 2020, 5:18 pm
#745
Join Date: Jun 2014
Posts: 31
all these LifeMiles problems are intentional money making scams
after all these years their Spanglish website still sucks
and the Email and call support is a useless waste of time
LifeMiles offers have ridiculous +13 hour layovers and x-amount of stopovers
be prepared to spend 4 times longer of your precious time getting from point A to B
flights with Avianca which is a third world country airline
cost far more than with any other superior Carrier
LifeMiles = welcome to the third world
after all these years their Spanglish website still sucks
and the Email and call support is a useless waste of time
LifeMiles offers have ridiculous +13 hour layovers and x-amount of stopovers
be prepared to spend 4 times longer of your precious time getting from point A to B
flights with Avianca which is a third world country airline
cost far more than with any other superior Carrier
LifeMiles = welcome to the third world
Feb 23, 2020, 5:18 am
#747
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Sep 2003
Programs: BA Silver, EY Gold, HH Diamond, IHG Plat
Posts: 12,210
all these LifeMiles problems are intentional money making scams
after all these years their Spanglish website still sucks
and the Email and call support is a useless waste of time
LifeMiles offers have ridiculous +13 hour layovers and x-amount of stopovers
be prepared to spend 4 times longer of your precious time getting from point A to B
flights with Avianca which is a third world country airline
cost far more than with any other superior Carrier
LifeMiles = welcome to the third world
after all these years their Spanglish website still sucks
and the Email and call support is a useless waste of time
LifeMiles offers have ridiculous +13 hour layovers and x-amount of stopovers
be prepared to spend 4 times longer of your precious time getting from point A to B
flights with Avianca which is a third world country airline
cost far more than with any other superior Carrier
LifeMiles = welcome to the third world
Feb 24, 2020, 2:55 am
#748
Join Date: Oct 2017
Location: C6
Programs: most
Posts: 65
Love LifeMiles, delivers some real gems, but it can take a bit of work. You really cant read a couple of blog, turn on a computer and expect to fly from the northern hemisphere to the southern hemisphere in First at will. You need to know the beast, five years flying with points and I still get headaches.
Last edited by datexan; Feb 24, 2020 at 3:05 am Reason: last comment deleted - wrong forum
Feb 24, 2020, 7:10 am
#749
Join Date: Oct 2012
Location: Tokyo
Programs: Marriott Plat, HH G,Hyatt E,*A Gold, OW Emerald.
Posts: 3,023
all these LifeMiles problems are intentional money making scams
after all these years their Spanglish website still sucks
and the Email and call support is a useless waste of time
LifeMiles offers have ridiculous +13 hour layovers and x-amount of stopovers
be prepared to spend 4 times longer of your precious time getting from point A to B
flights with Avianca which is a third world country airline
cost far more than with any other superior Carrier
LifeMiles = welcome to the third world
after all these years their Spanglish website still sucks
and the Email and call support is a useless waste of time
LifeMiles offers have ridiculous +13 hour layovers and x-amount of stopovers
be prepared to spend 4 times longer of your precious time getting from point A to B
flights with Avianca which is a third world country airline
cost far more than with any other superior Carrier
LifeMiles = welcome to the third world
great for the rest of us!
Feb 24, 2020, 9:52 pm
#750
Join Date: Aug 2019
Posts: 53
I emailed support to inquire about the possibility of cancelling my HKG-PVG flights around two weeks ago and they said they'll look into it. Haven't heard back from them but I see the miles back in my account and I can't pull up the itinerary on EVA Air's website anymore. I'll take that as a good sign, but how would I go about getting the taxes back since I never received any sort of notice that they were going to cancel my reservation.