Old Jan 11, 2014, 10:36 am
FlyerTalk Forums Expert How-Tos and Guides
Last edit by: centrifuge41
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:
  • Lifemiles tickets cannot be canceled or changed online, you need to call the Avianca/TACA call center (+1 800 284 2622). #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.
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Cancellation of Lifemiles ticket

Old Feb 16, 2019, 3:46 pm
  #691  
 
Join Date: Sep 2008
Posts: 7,875
Originally Posted by i_gtgo
Is anyone having a difficult time refunding tickets? Been trying to cancel a ticket for the last 2 weeks but every agent has issues taking payment. And their always complaining how the new system is in place and not working. Very frustrating!
Hmm, I just called a few days ago and got it done. He said he would check if he could do it himself, or had to escalate it, but ended up fine. I called in evening PST, the regular US number.
s0ssos is offline  
Old Mar 9, 2019, 11:31 am
  #692  
 
Join Date: Sep 2002
Location: Thousand Oaks, Ca., USA
Programs: AA Lifetime Plat; Bonvoy Titanium Lifetime Elite;Hyatt Globalist; HHonors Diamond; United Silver
Posts: 8,268
I'm happy to report that I got miles redeposited for a cancelled award without incurring a fee. There was a flight time change of 2 hours 10 minutes, and that was sufficient. Took about three weeks though, although the Life Miles service center person was helpful and competent, so only the waiting was hard.
milesforhire likes this.
beachfan is offline  
Old Mar 11, 2019, 4:15 am
  #693  
formerly 1984SW
 
Join Date: Aug 2008
Location: Merida, Yucatan, Mexico
Programs: UA
Posts: 1,057
Can the New York City city ticket office for Avianca handle cancellation/rebooking of LifeMiles tickets?

I have a BKK-NYC-BKK trip in April on two one-way LifeMiles award tickets, and might want to extend my stay in the USA. So, I'm wondering if I can just pay a visit in person to the ticket office and handle it rather than deal with phone calls, PINs, etc.
wpcoe is offline  
Old Mar 18, 2019, 7:21 pm
  #694  
 
Join Date: Feb 2016
Location: Chicago
Programs: United 1k, Hyatt Globalist, Marriott Plat
Posts: 231
Stupid question, but what would happen if I were to cancel my UA award flight through the United website, rather than through Lifemiles? Total loss of miles?
Lavezzi is offline  
Old Mar 18, 2019, 7:51 pm
  #695  
 
Join Date: Oct 2011
Posts: 3,835
Originally Posted by Lavezzi
Stupid question, but what would happen if I were to cancel my UA award flight through the United website, rather than through Lifemiles? Total loss of miles?
You can't do that. LM have to cancel the award, it is their ticket. UA can't touch it.
mlqsko is offline  
Old Apr 26, 2019, 4:59 pm
  #696  
 
Join Date: Apr 2019
Posts: 2
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ericfromvirginia is offline  
Old May 8, 2019, 11:28 am
  #697  
 
Join Date: Jan 2013
Location: BOS
Programs: AA EXP, DL PM, Hyatt Diamond
Posts: 2,028
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.
milesforhire likes this.
callmedtop is offline  
Old Jun 12, 2019, 4:23 pm
  #698  
 
Join Date: Mar 2011
Programs: Marriott LT Platinum+Titanium Elite, Hyatt Globalist, AA EXP, Delta Plat, United Silver, AX Biz Cent
Posts: 705
Can anyone confirm if I actually need to wait 24-48 hours for miles to be refunded, or if it should be instant?

I see a few posts in this thread saying instant ... I just cancelled a flight, and points were not redeposited yet (logged out/back in, waited 15 minutes).

Perhaps because I changed the FF# on the flight to my United number (for a Lufthansa flight), things got lost?
some dude is offline  
Old Jun 12, 2019, 5:26 pm
  #699  
 
Join Date: Oct 2011
Posts: 3,835
Originally Posted by some dude
Can anyone confirm if I actually need to wait 24-48 hours for miles to be refunded, or if it should be instant?

I see a few posts in this thread saying instant ... I just cancelled a flight, and points were not redeposited yet (logged out/back in, waited 15 minutes).

Perhaps because I changed the FF# on the flight to my United number (for a Lufthansa flight), things got lost?
Usually it is instant, always have been for me. If you're in a rush to book, give them a ring.
mlqsko is offline  
Old Jul 3, 2019, 1:54 am
  #700  
 
Join Date: Aug 2012
Posts: 30
Need some help. Booked a ticket using miles on Austrian. (NCE-VIE-ORD) NCE-VIE leg has been cancelled. There were no other connecting flights available to take me on time to VIE-ORD flight. Contacted Lifemiles and they cancelled ticket. Was told that the miles be back on account within a week. It has been more than 3 weeks and no miles. support always answer with the same statement (please wait....). Is there any other channels to contact them? Tried to call 800 number, the same luck.
serge28 is offline  
Old Jul 3, 2019, 5:00 am
  #701  
 
Join Date: Aug 2003
Posts: 2,338
Originally Posted by serge28
Need some help. Booked a ticket using miles on Austrian. (NCE-VIE-ORD) NCE-VIE leg has been cancelled. There were no other connecting flights available to take me on time to VIE-ORD flight. Contacted Lifemiles and they cancelled ticket. Was told that the miles be back on account within a week. It has been more than 3 weeks and no miles. support always answer with the same statement (please wait....). Is there any other channels to contact them? Tried to call 800 number, the same luck.
Unfortunately, you will likely need to call them multiple times. When requesting a cancelation you must get a case number, they will tell you the miles will be back in ten days. But you must follow up.
shoodawg is offline  
Old Jul 11, 2019, 10:55 am
  #702  
 
Join Date: Jul 2019
Posts: 1
Is it possible to cancel one leg of my round trip lifemiles ticket? When I called the call center they said I would need to cancel the whole flight and get it re-booked. Typically I wouldn't have any issue with this but my return leg is a F class ticket on Asiana which no longer has F class service but I've already confirmed that we keep our seats in the now business suites seats.
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Old Jul 11, 2019, 4:19 pm
  #703  
 
Join Date: Oct 2012
Location: Tokyo
Programs: Marriott Plat, HH G,Hyatt E,*A Gold, OW Emerald.
Posts: 3,023
Originally Posted by nos583
Is it possible to cancel one leg of my round trip lifemiles ticket? When I called the call center they said I would need to cancel the whole flight and get it re-booked. Typically I wouldn't have any issue with this but my return leg is a F class ticket on Asiana which no longer has F class service but I've already confirmed that we keep our seats in the now business suites seats.
Definitely not. Its all or nothing.
You can change the ticket, but only date changes allowed. If the entire flight (out bound and in bound) is downgraded from F to J, you can request for a refund of the mileage difference. (Or, Maybe change the return to a later date, keep it in business class, and build a new itinerary around it using separate tickets).
Finally, with LM, it is not advisable to book return trips. Better book two one-ways. That way, you can handle issues like these separately (outbound/inbound cancelled or downgraded or what not) instead of having to affect the whole ticket. Just sage advice.
Tokyoite is offline  
Old Jul 11, 2019, 5:28 pm
  #704  
 
Join Date: Oct 2011
Posts: 3,835
Originally Posted by Tokyoite
Finally, with LM, it is not advisable to book return trips. Better book two one-ways. That way, you can handle issues like these separately (outbound/inbound cancelled or downgraded or what not) instead of having to affect the whole ticket. Just sage advice.
And pay 2x the fees if you need to cancel?
mlqsko is offline  
Old Jul 11, 2019, 5:40 pm
  #705  
 
Join Date: Oct 2012
Location: Tokyo
Programs: Marriott Plat, HH G,Hyatt E,*A Gold, OW Emerald.
Posts: 3,023
Originally Posted by mlqsko
And pay 2x the fees if you need to cancel?
Yes. With LM, considering the BS you get (as seen on this thread), my mantra is to book what I actually intend to fly!
The days of $50 cancel fees were great, but these days, not worth the risk of snagging award tickets and then cancelling them.
If it is an emergency leading to cancellation, then an additional 200 USD is small change in the grand scheme of things.
Tokyoite is offline  

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