Jan 11, 2014, 10:36 am
Last edit by: EqualOpp
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, $30-200. 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 18, 2021 | 8:03 am
#1126
Join Date: Dec 2007
Posts: 175
Oh I feel your pain... I have been through this scenario at least 5 times now.
They will only deal with these kinds of issues on the phone.
You can get lucky but for the most part, the easiest thing to do is to cancel the ticket and make a new reservation. Or even better, or wait for a segment to change times or be cancelled that way you pay no fee.
Changing tickets is incredibly painful with Avianca. Impossible to reach them, completely incompetent when you do reach them. It drives me crazy to have to pay a service fee again but it keeps my sanity.
That said, I wouldn't book anything for the end of the year unless you want to torture yourself many times. Use AA miles and save AV for a closer date.
They will only deal with these kinds of issues on the phone.
You can get lucky but for the most part, the easiest thing to do is to cancel the ticket and make a new reservation. Or even better, or wait for a segment to change times or be cancelled that way you pay no fee.
Changing tickets is incredibly painful with Avianca. Impossible to reach them, completely incompetent when you do reach them. It drives me crazy to have to pay a service fee again but it keeps my sanity.
That said, I wouldn't book anything for the end of the year unless you want to torture yourself many times. Use AA miles and save AV for a closer date.
Wasn't sure if they'd actually let me cancel without an exorbitant fee but will give it a shot. In the meantime, leaning towards booking on AA given availability, waiting to see if something changes between now and April that will give me free cancellation, and if necessary, sucking it up and paying the fee to get my miles back. Do you know what the fee is between NYC and Central America? Is that a $200 long haul cancellation fee?
Jan 18, 2021 | 8:48 am
#1127
Join Date: May 2003
Location: Paris
Programs: AA LT Plat (4m+), AF Plat, A3 Gold, Hyatt Lifetime Globalist, Marriott Plat, IHG Plat/Ambassador
Posts: 2,721
Hahahahahahahaha glad to see I'm not alone.
Wasn't sure if they'd actually let me cancel without an exorbitant fee but will give it a shot. In the meantime, leaning towards booking on AA given availability, waiting to see if something changes between now and April that will give me free cancellation, and if necessary, sucking it up and paying the fee to get my miles back. Do you know what the fee is between NYC and Central America? Is that a $200 long haul cancellation fee?
Wasn't sure if they'd actually let me cancel without an exorbitant fee but will give it a shot. In the meantime, leaning towards booking on AA given availability, waiting to see if something changes between now and April that will give me free cancellation, and if necessary, sucking it up and paying the fee to get my miles back. Do you know what the fee is between NYC and Central America? Is that a $200 long haul cancellation fee?
I would try and see if you can get it waived... like everything at Avianca it is random...
Good luck!!
Jan 19, 2021 | 5:56 pm
#1128
Join Date: Dec 2007
Posts: 175
WhatApp Chat #2 finally came to life as well. Unsurprisingly, no luck there either. After three days "on hold" for the the super secret special ops team that is supposed to be able to help I just got another member of the same team that can't do anything and can't suggest anything than to call Lifemiles for a refund (at $200/ticket).
Lifemiles insists that this is Avianca's problem, and several calls to them for a refund with a waived fee have gone nowhere.
So American it is for now. If space opens up in my fare class, I will call back to get it changed, and if not, I will hope for a change or cancellation prior to travel that allows for a free cancellation.
Last edited by md125; Jan 19, 2021 at 6:01 pm
Jan 20, 2021 | 11:09 am
#1130
Join Date: May 2003
Location: Paris
Programs: AA LT Plat (4m+), AF Plat, A3 Gold, Hyatt Lifetime Globalist, Marriott Plat, IHG Plat/Ambassador
Posts: 2,721
Jan 20, 2021 | 5:46 pm
#1131
Join Date: Apr 2006
Posts: 1,259
Another data point - I tried changing 3 tickets to leave one day earlier. After 2 hours and 15 minutes on the phone (the first hour was on hold FOR the change team, the second hour was on hold WITH the change team while they worked on the reservation. Then - click - they hung up on me.
But, three new tickets have been issued and emailed. Success - I guess?
But, three new tickets have been issued and emailed. Success - I guess?
Jan 20, 2021 | 8:23 pm
#1132
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: Central Florida and Bangkok
Posts: 417
Refund on taxes for a cancelled award flight finally came 10 months later.
Last March LH cancelled my BKK-FRA-MIA flight. Miles were credited back within a day after I called in. Was told refund for taxes might take 3 months. 3 months and 2 weeks later, while paying fees/taxes for another flight award, I mentioned I never received the refund. The rep looked it up and said he needed to input the refund request again and that I needed to wait another 3 months. I wrote off the $66 as a cost of doing business with Lifemiles. Then last week I received an email that a credit was issued and 2 days ago the credit appeared on my CC. What a surprise.
Last March LH cancelled my BKK-FRA-MIA flight. Miles were credited back within a day after I called in. Was told refund for taxes might take 3 months. 3 months and 2 weeks later, while paying fees/taxes for another flight award, I mentioned I never received the refund. The rep looked it up and said he needed to input the refund request again and that I needed to wait another 3 months. I wrote off the $66 as a cost of doing business with Lifemiles. Then last week I received an email that a credit was issued and 2 days ago the credit appeared on my CC. What a surprise.
Jan 22, 2021 | 7:49 am
#1134
Join Date: Nov 2015
Location: PDX
Programs: AS Atmos Platinum, AC, AF/KL, AV, BA, VS | Hilton, Hyatt
Posts: 521
Some good news to report. I canceled my partner award ticket back in November and the miles redeposited in four days. This morning, the taxes have been credited back to my card - so just about two months for that.
Jan 22, 2021 | 8:31 am
#1135
Join Date: May 2003
Location: Paris
Programs: AA LT Plat (4m+), AF Plat, A3 Gold, Hyatt Lifetime Globalist, Marriott Plat, IHG Plat/Ambassador
Posts: 2,721
Update on my end- after 11 months of waiting for two refunds I opened a dispute with Amex France.
Avianca never responded so today I was credited the full amount (including the $25 service fee!) which was satisfying since I've had to pay them the same fee multiple times, each time a ticket was reissued.
Avianca never responded so today I was credited the full amount (including the $25 service fee!) which was satisfying since I've had to pay them the same fee multiple times, each time a ticket was reissued.
Jan 30, 2021 | 9:22 am
#1136
Join Date: Nov 2015
Location: PDX
Programs: AS Atmos Platinum, AC, AF/KL, AV, BA, VS | Hilton, Hyatt
Posts: 521
In a bizarre follow up, this morning's email from Avianca telling me that my refund is complete is the 10th identical one I've received since the credit went back on my card last week. So we either get no updates/information or too many! This company...
Jan 30, 2021 | 9:29 am
#1137
Join Date: May 2003
Location: Paris
Programs: AA LT Plat (4m+), AF Plat, A3 Gold, Hyatt Lifetime Globalist, Marriott Plat, IHG Plat/Ambassador
Posts: 2,721
Im still laughing (kind of) that after Amex issued me a credit on taxes from Dec 2019 I got an email this week saying I could not claim a refund as it had been more than 12
months.. (despite the first claim 12 months ago and a second one 2 months ago) 😱🙉😱🙉
Jan 30, 2021 | 11:39 am
#1138
Join Date: Jan 2021
Posts: 1
TK nightmare still exist?
Has anyone recently booked TK ticket using LifeMiles? Ive read up on the horror stories and has been super hesitant. Im looking to travel to Dubai next month and I know flights between Istanbul and Dubai have resumed. Leaving from
jfk. Any assistance would be much appreciated.
jfk. Any assistance would be much appreciated.
Feb 16, 2021 | 8:53 am
#1139
Join Date: Jul 2017
Location: YVR
Programs: UA 1K
Posts: 1,006
Data point: NH cancelled a segment. Reached change line on first try. Total time of call 37 minutes (Most of that was on hold). No fees. 2 days for miles to redeposit; 1 week - 30 days for refund to arrive on CC.
Feb 16, 2021 | 9:06 am
#1140
Join Date: May 2003
Location: Paris
Programs: AA LT Plat (4m+), AF Plat, A3 Gold, Hyatt Lifetime Globalist, Marriott Plat, IHG Plat/Ambassador
Posts: 2,721
Interesting experience yesterday.
I called to cancel a ticket- fairly easy but then was told I needed to file a refund request separately.. ??.. and that it currently is taking up to 10 months to process.
Given that for another ticket I cancelled i discovered a refund had never been processed I would strongly suggest requesting one even if you do cancel...
One would think this would be automatic but thinking apparently isnt possible with LifeMiles....
I called to cancel a ticket- fairly easy but then was told I needed to file a refund request separately.. ??.. and that it currently is taking up to 10 months to process.
Given that for another ticket I cancelled i discovered a refund had never been processed I would strongly suggest requesting one even if you do cancel...
One would think this would be automatic but thinking apparently isnt possible with LifeMiles....