Good afternoon everyone, I hope your weekend is going well. A few weeks ago, I had to cancel a few international business class awards due to a scheduling conflict, so I wanted to share the various cancellation processes, timelines, and fees involved. If you find yourself in a similar situation, you will know what to expect from the process. In this post, I will cover my experience cancelling award tickets with Avianca LifeMiles and Singapore Airlines. You can read about my experience cancelling award tickets with Delta, Korean Air, and Air France / KLM.
90,000 Avianca LifeMiles for Air India Business Class (SFO-DEL): San Francisco, CA -> Delhi, India
I tried to cancel the award ticket on the Avianca LifeMiles website on April 2, but couldn’t find a cancellation page, so I called the LifeMiles customer service number (1-866-919-0081). The rep informed me that there was a $200 cancellation fee. Once that fee was paid, the 90,000 Avianca LifeMiles would be refunded within 72 hours and the taxes/fees would be refunded within 30 days. Instead of paying with a credit card over the phone, Avianca sent me a link to pay with the subject line “Payment Instructions for your order” from the email address do-not-reply@worldpay.com. I clicked the link and paid the $200 cancellation fee.
I used my JPMorgan Chase Ritz Carlton Credit Card to pay the $200 fee with the plan of getting the purchase reimbursed with my $300 travel incidentals credit.
5 days later, on April 7, the 90,000 Avianca LifeMiles were refunded to my account.
The next day, I received this email from Avianca. Since I do not speak Spanish well, I clicked the link at the top to view the email in Google Chrome and then Google Chrome was able to translate the email into English. I clicked the link at the bottom of the email to check the status of the request.
On this page, I scrolled down and clicked on the Check the Status of your Refund.
I then clicked on the Ask for a Refund tab, entered the Application Number, and clicked the Continue button.
The status said “In Process.”
A few days later, I checked again and the status changed to “In Payment Process.”
3 weeks after initially cancelling the award ticket, I received this email from Avianca. I clicked the link at the top to view the email in Google Chrome and then Google Chrome was able to translate the email into English. The email said, “Your refund request has been paid.”
I went to check the status again and saw that the status said “Successful Payment” with a payment date of April 23.
3 days later, on April 26, the $27.80 taxes/fees posted to my US Bank Altitude Reserve. I originally paid $52.80, but $25 of that was a fee paid to Avianca LifeMiles for the partner award booking fee, which doesn’t get refunded, so I only received a partial refund of $27.80.
65,000 Singapore Airlines Miles for Singapore Airlines Business Class (DEL-SIN-KUL): Delhi, India -> Singapore -> Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
I was able to cancel the Singapore Airlines award ticket online on April 2, but there was a $50 cancellation fee. Here is the refund confirmation email.
I used my JPMorgan Chase Ritz Carlton Credit Card to pay the $50 fee with the plan of getting the purchase reimbursed with my $300 travel incidentals credit.
I also received this automated response that I would hear from Singapore Airlines within 3 business days.
An hour later, I received an email asking about the “specific reason for requesting a refund.” After initially thinking, “Does it matter why I cancelled the award?,” I responded to the email saying that I could not take the flight because I cancelled the trip.
The next day, I received an email asking about the credit card I used to pay for the taxes/fees. I used my US Bank Altitude Reserve Credit Card to pay the taxes/fees, but the credit card number had since expired, but I did receive a new credit card with a new expiration date. I responded to the email with the new expiration date information.
The next day I received an email stating that the miles would be refunded back to my Singapore Airlines account and I would receive a refund of the taxes/fees back to my US Bank Altitude Reserve.
2 hours later, I received an email asking about the credit card expiration date and provided the same information as above.
4 days later, I received this Refund Notice email stating that the refund of taxes/fees could take up to 6 weeks.
The next day, on April 9, the 65,000 Singapore Airlines Miles were refunded to my account.
3 days later, on April 12, I received the $64.42 in taxes/fees refunded to my US Bank Altitude Reserve.
To summarize the cancellation process for these 2 award tickets, here are the details:
| Award Ticket | Cancellation Date | Cancel Fee | Total Miles | Miles Refunded Date | Total Taxes | Taxes Refunded Date | Total Days |
| Avianca LifeMiles Award: SFO-DEL | 4/2/2024 | $200.00 | 90,000 | 4/7/2024 | $52.80 | 4/26/2024 | 24 |
| Singapore Airlines Award: DEL-SIN-KUL | 4/2/2024 | $50.00 | 65,000 | 4/9/2024 | $64.42 | 4/12/2024 | 10 |
Please check out My Experience Cancelling 3 International Business Class Awards: Delta, Korean Air & Air France / KLM. Here is a summary of the 5 award tickets I cancelled for my entire trip:
| Award Ticket | Cancellation Date | Cancel Fee | Total Miles | Miles Refunded Date | Total Taxes | Taxes Refunded Date | Total Days |
| Avianca LifeMiles Award: SFO-DEL | 4/2/2024 | $200.00 | 90,000 | 4/7/2024 | $52.80 | 4/26/2024 | 24 |
| Singapore Airlines Award: DEL-SIN-KUL | 4/2/2024 | $50.00 | 65,000 | 4/9/2024 | $64.42 | 4/12/2024 | 10 |
| Delta Award: KUL-ICN-UBN | 4/2/2024 | $0.00 | 40,000 | 4/2/2024 | $58.10 | 4/4/2024 | 2 |
| Korean Air Award: UBN-ICN-TPE | 4/2/2024 | 3,000 KE Miles | 30,000 | 4/3/2024 | $79.40 | 4/8/2024 | 6 |
| Air France / KLM Award: TPE-SFO | 4/2/2024 | $75.00 | 88,500 | 4/4/2024 | $31.15 | 4/5/2024 | 3 |
As you can see by looking at the far right column, the total number of days for cancelling the award tickets varies tremendously. After all was said and done, the total cost to cancel the 5 award was $200.00 (Avianca LifeMiles) + $25 Avianca LifeMiles partner booking fee + $50.00 (Singapore Airlines) + 3,000 Korean Air Miles + $75.00 Air France / KLM = $350.00 + 3,000 Korean Air Miles. In exchange, I got back a total of 313,500 miles across 5 award programs. I don’t have any immediate plans to use the first 4 miles, but I was able to immediately use the refunded Air France / KLM miles to book 2 business class award tickets from Stockholm, Sweden -> Amsterdam, Netherlands -> Chicago, Illinois (ARN-AMS-ORD) this summer.
If you have any questions about the cancellation process, please leave a comment below. Have a great weekend everyone!
I ended up cutting a trip short by a week due to getting food poisoning and once I was stable I wanted to be home. My return trip was using Flying Blue miles and Air France. I was able to cancel the flight online but I had to call to pay the fee which I did after returning home. A lady with a nice accent (French) answered the phone and after paying the fee, my miles were immediately restored and I saw the fees (around $350 per ticket) refunded a week or two later.
I think if I had to cancel LifeMiles, I’d hand it over to my wife who speaks fluent Spanish.
Hi Rich, sorry you had to cut your trip short due to getting food poisoning, that is a rough way to end a trip. I’ve made changes to an Air France / KLM award tickets over the phone and the process is pretty fast. I am not sure if there is anyway to avoid paying the $200 Avianca LifeMiles fee, but maybe speaking fluent Spanish could help.
Thanks for sharing your experience! Cancelling international business class awards can definitely be a hassle. It’s great to hear you found success with Avianca LifeMiles and Singapore Airlines. Clear communication and flexibility from airlines can make all the difference in these situations. Looking forward to hearing more about your travel adventures
Thank you, I’m glad my post was helpful.