Canceling a ticket using airline reward miles....

[travelplanner70]

I booked a flight 4 months ago to Florida for mid-April using Delta Skymiles. I will probably have to cancel the trip. Delta talks about waiving change fees for purchased tickets, but I have found nothing on the web site to address SkyMiles redeposit waivers. I stayed on a "Chat" with Delta all night long. They never responded. Does anyone know about waiving SkyMiles ticket change fees? Thank you.

 

[am1]

Im sure they will. My issue is my miles with a different airline expire. Travel is not until the end of may but my kids may not get their week vacation then. Have Hawaii booked for September the same way.

 

[jtp1947]

I just did this today with United. No redeposit fee and taxes refunded. No elite status with United.

 

[Luanne]

Pretty much all airlines will just re-deposit the miles back into your account with no fees.

 

[CalGalTraveler]

Thanks for the update on United. @jtp1947 can you share the reason for the waiver they used? i.e. was your flight cancelled or changed > 25 hours change? Was your flight in April? We have a waiver on the account for mid-April but last time I called all they could do was move the flight to sometime before Dec 31 without a fee. I would like the miles redeposited and fees waived. Were you able to use the credit for another person or just the person on the ticket?

 

[post-it]

We don't travel until Mid May to Aruba. We used AA miles and planning on giving this until beginning of May to consider cancellation, plus AA sent this email to all travelers:

We understand it’s frustrating to wait, but if you’re not traveling in the next 72 hours, please wait until closer to your trip to call. You can cancel your flight online now and call when you’re ready to rebook. Please contact your travel agent for help if you didn't book directly with us.

 

[mjm1]

We have flights on AA using miles in April and will be canceling. We also paid extra for seat upgrades, so homely those are refunded.

Best regards.

Mike

 

[Luanne]

We have flights on AA using miles in April and will be canceling. We also paid extra for seat upgrades, so homely those are refunded.

Best regards.

Mike

Dd had her upgrades with United refunded for a flight in May.

 

[jtp1947]

Thanks for the update on United. @jtp1947 can you share the reason for the waiver they used? i.e. was your flight cancelled or changed > 25 hours change? Was your flight in April? We have a waiver on the account for mid-April but last time I called all they could do was move the flight to sometime before Dec 31 without a fee. I would like the miles redeposited and fees waived. Were you able to use the credit for another person or just the person on the ticket?

Our April 8th flight, which was booked 11/29, was rescheduled to arrive CDG 26 hours later than originally scheduled. The miles redeposited were for 2 people. I would think Delta will eventually allow you to do what you want. You may have to wait a while but you still have time. Good luck and please post your outcome.

 

[jpc763]

I just did this today with United. No redeposit fee and taxes refunded. No elite status with United.

I just tried to do it with my upcoming 4/10 flight and United will charge me $125 redeposit fee. I can change it for free however.

 

[CalGalTraveler]

I just tried to do it with my upcoming 4/10 flight and United will charge me $125 redeposit fee. I can change it for free however.

This is my issue. It is for an 85 YO. She won't be traveling for the rest of this year so want to redeposit the points so we can use for someone else in the future. Hoping United would waive the redeposit fee. Not wanting to sit on hold for 4 hours to find out right now. It sounds like @jtp1947 was waived because the flight was changed more than 25 hours. $125 won't break us but still hoping for a waiver.

 

[Cornell]

I just tried to do it with my upcoming 4/10 flight and United will charge me $125 redeposit fee. I can change it for free however.

this was my experience too. I had 2 upcoming UAL flights and when I tried to cancel online I saw the redeposit fee. I'm hoping when things calm down, I can get an agent on the phone and see if I can talk them into not charging me that.

 

[jehb2]

American Airlines reinstated my miles for free. It would have been $525 because the tickets came from 3 different account. Taxes for the tickets were also refunded. This was for Sunner travel.

 

[travelplanner70]

I found this on the Delta web site tonight. I did not notice it before.

What if I paid with Miles?

"The same rules apply whether a flight is booked with cash or miles. For award flights that qualify for a change fee waiver (including travel dates in March or April 2020, or tickets purchased in March 2020), we are also waiving the mile redeposit fee.  "

 

[mentalbreak]

Delta was more than generous for our recent cancellation.
Leg#1 was booked April 2019 using separate skymiles accounts for each of the 5 tickets. We received full refunds of the miles to each skymiles account and the taxes to the credit card.
Leg#2 was one transaction for 5 tickets. At the time we cancelled, the published policy stated we would receive credits that needed to be used by 12/30/2020 or one year from original booking. Again, these were booked in April 2019, so I was afraid we were out of luck. The Delta rep OFFERED a full refund. The refunds came through on our cc within 24 hours.

 

[gresmi]

Pretty much all airlines will just re-deposit the miles back into your account with no fees.

This ^^^^.

Not a good look or time for them to be thieving miles. Especially when they're trying to get in line for "their fair share" of the B$'s. That's BIllions, with a capital "B".

I just love that phrase, "their fair share".

I promise to try to use it as often as possible, to honor the political season.