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
Nov 12, 2020, 9:46 am
#1081
Join Date: Feb 2008
Posts: 939
Finally getting a slew of backed up refunds.
One thing I have noticed that may help others. If, when you check your flight status on Avianca and there is (even a minor) schedule change with the airline but there are alternate times/flights proposed and you click "Accept", the itinerary moves back to Confirmed status (on Avianca and usually on the carrier airline). There is no indication that there is any problem so you probably think your ticket is still valid with the new flights. But the ticket is not really reissued and not flyable and will likely be cancelled at some point automatically. After that it will come up as not found or not valid. Lifemiles reps are clueless and will just say the carrier cancelled the flights and there is nothing they can do, and the carrier will say they have nothing to do with it and to contact Avianca. I had this happen on several itineraries and was on the verge of refunding the miles and giving up on the trips (since they can almost never find alternate flights that match all their published and unpublished criteria), but then finally found someone semi-competent in the "voluntary changes" dept (option 2-2-2) who said the ticket just needs to be reissued and did so on the original flights, even though they were no longer showing award availability on LM. This happened on at least 2-3 flights already. So the posts upstream about tickets mysteriously being cancelled when flights are still flying may be due to this.
One thing I have noticed that may help others. If, when you check your flight status on Avianca and there is (even a minor) schedule change with the airline but there are alternate times/flights proposed and you click "Accept", the itinerary moves back to Confirmed status (on Avianca and usually on the carrier airline). There is no indication that there is any problem so you probably think your ticket is still valid with the new flights. But the ticket is not really reissued and not flyable and will likely be cancelled at some point automatically. After that it will come up as not found or not valid. Lifemiles reps are clueless and will just say the carrier cancelled the flights and there is nothing they can do, and the carrier will say they have nothing to do with it and to contact Avianca. I had this happen on several itineraries and was on the verge of refunding the miles and giving up on the trips (since they can almost never find alternate flights that match all their published and unpublished criteria), but then finally found someone semi-competent in the "voluntary changes" dept (option 2-2-2) who said the ticket just needs to be reissued and did so on the original flights, even though they were no longer showing award availability on LM. This happened on at least 2-3 flights already. So the posts upstream about tickets mysteriously being cancelled when flights are still flying may be due to this.
Nov 12, 2020, 10:09 am
#1082
Join Date: May 2003
Location: Paris
Programs: AA LT Plat (4m+), AF Plat, A3 Gold, Hyatt Lifetime Globalist, Marriott Plat, IHG Plat/Ambassador
Posts: 2,648
Finally getting a slew of backed up refunds.
One thing I have noticed that may help others. If, when you check your flight status on Avianca and there is (even a minor) schedule change with the airline but there are alternate times/flights proposed and you click "Accept", the itinerary moves back to Confirmed status (on Avianca and usually on the carrier airline). There is no indication that there is any problem so you probably think your ticket is still valid with the new flights. But the ticket is not really reissued and not flyable and will likely be cancelled at some point automatically. After that it will come up as not found or not valid. Lifemiles reps are clueless and will just say the carrier cancelled the flights and there is nothing they can do, and the carrier will say they have nothing to do with it and to contact Avianca. I had this happen on several itineraries and was on the verge of refunding the miles and giving up on the trips (since they can almost never find alternate flights that match all their published and unpublished criteria), but then finally found someone semi-competent in the "voluntary changes" dept (option 2-2-2) who said the ticket just needs to be reissued and did so on the original flights, even though they were no longer showing award availability on LM. This happened on at least 2-3 flights already. So the posts upstream about tickets mysteriously being cancelled when flights are still flying may be due to this.
One thing I have noticed that may help others. If, when you check your flight status on Avianca and there is (even a minor) schedule change with the airline but there are alternate times/flights proposed and you click "Accept", the itinerary moves back to Confirmed status (on Avianca and usually on the carrier airline). There is no indication that there is any problem so you probably think your ticket is still valid with the new flights. But the ticket is not really reissued and not flyable and will likely be cancelled at some point automatically. After that it will come up as not found or not valid. Lifemiles reps are clueless and will just say the carrier cancelled the flights and there is nothing they can do, and the carrier will say they have nothing to do with it and to contact Avianca. I had this happen on several itineraries and was on the verge of refunding the miles and giving up on the trips (since they can almost never find alternate flights that match all their published and unpublished criteria), but then finally found someone semi-competent in the "voluntary changes" dept (option 2-2-2) who said the ticket just needs to be reissued and did so on the original flights, even though they were no longer showing award availability on LM. This happened on at least 2-3 flights already. So the posts upstream about tickets mysteriously being cancelled when flights are still flying may be due to this.
Nov 13, 2020, 1:55 pm
#1083
Join Date: Nov 2015
Location: PDX
Programs: AS MVPG 75K, BA Silver, AC, AF/KL, AV, VS | Hilton, Hyatt, Marriott
Posts: 459
My partner award flight was canceled weeks ago but I dreaded calling so put it off until today. To my surprise the call took just five minutes and the cheery agent said that the miles should be redeposited within two weeks (?) and that taxes should be refunded within six months.
I was really hoping to be done with Lifemiles when I booked this ticket back in January but it looks like I still have another flight to book. I'm not buying any more miles, no matter how much of a bonus, though.
I was really hoping to be done with Lifemiles when I booked this ticket back in January but it looks like I still have another flight to book. I'm not buying any more miles, no matter how much of a bonus, though.
Nov 13, 2020, 1:59 pm
#1084
Join Date: May 2003
Location: Paris
Programs: AA LT Plat (4m+), AF Plat, A3 Gold, Hyatt Lifetime Globalist, Marriott Plat, IHG Plat/Ambassador
Posts: 2,648
My partner award flight was canceled weeks ago but I dreaded calling so put it off until today. To my surprise the call took just five minutes and the cheery agent said that the miles should be redeposited within two weeks (?) and that taxes should be refunded within six months.
I was really hoping to be done with Lifemiles when I booked this ticket back in January but it looks like I still have another flight to book. I'm not buying any more miles, no matter how much of a bonus, though.
I was really hoping to be done with Lifemiles when I booked this ticket back in January but it looks like I still have another flight to book. I'm not buying any more miles, no matter how much of a bonus, though.
As for the refund.... who knows... I'm still waiting for two from 11 months ago.
Nov 14, 2020, 4:37 pm
#1085
Join Date: Dec 2017
Location: SFO/YYZ
Programs: AC 25K, AS MVP Gold, BA Bronze, UA Silver, Marriott Titanium, Hilton Diamond, Hyatt Globalist
Posts: 2,472
I got a refund of the taxes for two of my cancelled flights today. Not really sure which it was as all my flights have been the same SFO<->YYZ pairs, but I suspect it's the earliest ones which I would have cancelled back May.
To be honest I had written off the taxes entirely so it's a nice surprise.
To be honest I had written off the taxes entirely so it's a nice surprise.
Nov 17, 2020, 10:40 pm
#1086
Join Date: Nov 2015
Location: PDX
Programs: AS MVPG 75K, BA Silver, AC, AF/KL, AV, VS | Hilton, Hyatt, Marriott
Posts: 459
11 months still waiting for the taxes to refund? Yikes. Good luck to us all!
Nov 25, 2020, 6:49 am
#1089
Join Date: Aug 2020
Posts: 4
Have also received lifemiles and tax back, being redeposited to my account/card.
I am sorry in case this is a little off topic, however would greatly appreciate your feedback as I do not exactly know how to proceed.
Seeing the latest Cyberweek 200% promotion in my mailbox, I am considering to even buy missing 15,000 to finally get rid of all my lifemiles (HND-FRA or FRA-HND via NH203/204).
As I have one JAL- (booked via Marco Polo/Asia Miles) and one NH booking (Miles & More) open for December and January, I am considering cancelling one ticket (most likely JAL one as I a generally see a higher value in those for future bookings).
Cancelling either JAL or NH ticket would result in 120$ or ~50$ respectively.
As I would see a bigger benefit to keep used Asia Miles, I am considering to pay the 120$ cancellation fee and investing another 165$ for the missing 15,000 Lifemiles.
Do you guys see any upside in this idea?
If yes, how likely is it that I invest in new lifemiles and related cancellation fee (to be replaced ticket) and end up not getting checked-in (December 2020) due to Avianca's/Lifemiles financial issues in paying NH for that award flight.
I assume as long as availabilities are still bookable, actually using that ticket should not be of any real issue?
Once again, sorry in case this is not completely related to that thread.
Have been reading and following up many months and am thankful for all comments.
All the best.
Nik
I am sorry in case this is a little off topic, however would greatly appreciate your feedback as I do not exactly know how to proceed.
Seeing the latest Cyberweek 200% promotion in my mailbox, I am considering to even buy missing 15,000 to finally get rid of all my lifemiles (HND-FRA or FRA-HND via NH203/204).
As I have one JAL- (booked via Marco Polo/Asia Miles) and one NH booking (Miles & More) open for December and January, I am considering cancelling one ticket (most likely JAL one as I a generally see a higher value in those for future bookings).
Cancelling either JAL or NH ticket would result in 120$ or ~50$ respectively.
As I would see a bigger benefit to keep used Asia Miles, I am considering to pay the 120$ cancellation fee and investing another 165$ for the missing 15,000 Lifemiles.
Do you guys see any upside in this idea?
If yes, how likely is it that I invest in new lifemiles and related cancellation fee (to be replaced ticket) and end up not getting checked-in (December 2020) due to Avianca's/Lifemiles financial issues in paying NH for that award flight.
I assume as long as availabilities are still bookable, actually using that ticket should not be of any real issue?
Once again, sorry in case this is not completely related to that thread.
Have been reading and following up many months and am thankful for all comments.
All the best.
Nik
Nov 26, 2020, 7:11 pm
#1090
Join Date: Sep 2000
Location: YYZ/YHM/BUF
Programs: AA Plat, HH Gold, MR Plat
Posts: 4,212
I'm still waiting on refunds to post to my credit card from cancelled tickets in August. So far I've received emails in Spanish saying that the refunds are authorized. When I check the refund status on Avianca website, it says "PAYMENT FEEDBACK" under the Status column. Does anyone know what that means?
Dec 3, 2020, 8:26 am
#1091
Join Date: Mar 2012
Posts: 3,166
So I booked a flight at the end of November last year, for a flight in fall this year.
The flight got canceled due to the pandemic, and I've been forgetting to call in to ask for a refund.
Today it struck me that I should call in and ask for a refund of the ticket, but when I called in I was told my ticket has expired as it's been more than a year since the ticket was issued, so they cannot refund anything.
It's been about a week since my ticket expired as I booked it at the end of November last year.
Am I out of luck in this case?
Or is there anything I can do at this point?
I cannot believe I just threw away the ticket like this...
The flight got canceled due to the pandemic, and I've been forgetting to call in to ask for a refund.
Today it struck me that I should call in and ask for a refund of the ticket, but when I called in I was told my ticket has expired as it's been more than a year since the ticket was issued, so they cannot refund anything.
It's been about a week since my ticket expired as I booked it at the end of November last year.
Am I out of luck in this case?
Or is there anything I can do at this point?
I cannot believe I just threw away the ticket like this...
Dec 3, 2020, 9:57 am
#1092
Join Date: Jan 2020
Programs: United Mileageplus
Posts: 7
So I booked a flight at the end of November last year, for a flight in fall this year.
The flight got canceled due to the pandemic, and I've been forgetting to call in to ask for a refund.
Today it struck me that I should call in and ask for a refund of the ticket, but when I called in I was told my ticket has expired as it's been more than a year since the ticket was issued, so they cannot refund anything.
It's been about a week since my ticket expired as I booked it at the end of November last year.
Am I out of luck in this case?
Or is there anything I can do at this point?
I cannot believe I just threw away the ticket like this...
The flight got canceled due to the pandemic, and I've been forgetting to call in to ask for a refund.
Today it struck me that I should call in and ask for a refund of the ticket, but when I called in I was told my ticket has expired as it's been more than a year since the ticket was issued, so they cannot refund anything.
It's been about a week since my ticket expired as I booked it at the end of November last year.
Am I out of luck in this case?
Or is there anything I can do at this point?
I cannot believe I just threw away the ticket like this...
Dec 3, 2020, 10:08 am
#1093
Join Date: May 2003
Location: Paris
Programs: AA LT Plat (4m+), AF Plat, A3 Gold, Hyatt Lifetime Globalist, Marriott Plat, IHG Plat/Ambassador
Posts: 2,648
In the page that shows flexibility policies for Lifemiles bookings, there’s a fine print that says that tickets issued more than a year ago are non-refundable. I don’t think there’s anything you can do at this point, except HUCA and see if there’s an agent that isn’t aware of that restriction. Even then, their computer system might not allow the refund to go through.
thus shouldn’t be allowed- it’s theft, pure and simple.
if I were you I wouldn’t bother to call. I would write a stern note demanding the reimbursement. So tired of these people’s games.
Dec 3, 2020, 10:28 am
#1094
Join Date: Mar 2012
Posts: 3,166
In the page that shows flexibility policies for Lifemiles bookings, there’s a fine print that says that tickets issued more than a year ago are non-refundable. I don’t think there’s anything you can do at this point, except HUCA and see if there’s an agent that isn’t aware of that restriction. Even then, their computer system might not allow the refund to go through.
A similar thing happened to me but I fortunately caught it at 11.5 months. Instead of dealing with their idiotic and incompetent customer service I just contested the charge with Amex, if they had done their job in the first place this never would have happened.
thus shouldn’t be allowed- it’s theft, pure and simple.
if I were you I wouldn’t bother to call. I would write a stern note demanding the reimbursement. So tired of these people’s games.
thus shouldn’t be allowed- it’s theft, pure and simple.
if I were you I wouldn’t bother to call. I would write a stern note demanding the reimbursement. So tired of these people’s games.
I will write in and hope they will process a refund for me.
Dec 3, 2020, 1:51 pm
#1095
Join Date: Mar 2012
Posts: 3,166
In the page that shows flexibility policies for Lifemiles bookings, there’s a fine print that says that tickets issued more than a year ago are non-refundable. I don’t think there’s anything you can do at this point, except HUCA and see if there’s an agent that isn’t aware of that restriction. Even then, their computer system might not allow the refund to go through.