Changing or Canceling flights purchased with reward miles

While I don’t have experience with your specific travel portal, I can tell you that every airline/travel agency is completely slammed right now and all seem to be requesting that if your travel is not imminent ( June is not imminent) that you should wait and not call them at this time so that those who were scheduled to travel in the next 72 hours can get through and get the help they need.

I cannot specifically address United/ Lufthansa, but I have Delta flights for a May/June tour of Eastern Europe that will likely be canceled. I purchased the tickets with Skymiles from an Amex card. I hope to sign up for the same tour in 2021. I was told my rewards miles could be re-banked for a $150 fee and then be available to use in the future. If you can reschedule now, you might avoid that fee.

I've actually had to cancel two different reward tickets in the last week. Not with that program, but with two others. Both went smoothly.

You have paid for flights. You paid with points, but you still paid with some (admittedly oddball) currency. You need to deal with the program that you booked through.

I'm not terribly familiar with the US Bank Flexperks program, but know many of the others. Typically, when you book with miles/points, if you cancel award flights, there is a fee to redeposit your miles/points. Exactly what that fee is depends on the program. You need to call and speak with them (Flexperks). You can ask them to waive the redeposit fee. They may or may not. (FWIW, I did this 2 days ago with American Airlines) and they did waive the redeposit fee and there was no pushback.) Note that you may get a more favorable answer if you wait a while - most airlines are doing no-cost changes/cancellations on a month-by-month basis (right now many travel businesses are focused on March, some on March+April, many are not yet to waive fees for June travel...but will as we get closer).

If I were you, I'd call them Monday, be prepared to sit on hold for a long time (everybody is slammed). Ask nicely if they'll waive the fees. If they do, great. If not, try again after April 1.

Good luck.

Just to clarify, I called once and was told to try back due to the high demand. I realize that since my trip is not until June, I have time and can wait to call back, which is what I will do. I know there are people with more urgent travel needs than I, and was simply asking if anyone had experiences with getting rewards points refunded.

Somewhere in all of the materials that they sent you is the procedures to deal with cancellations. I know, I know, most of us, self include, don't bother to read it before discarding it. It is probably somewhere on their web site. Since I have a US bank account I will see if I can find anything although I am not enrolled in that program.

I called yesterday for our American Airlines miles to be refunded back to the account. I had cancelled the reservations directly on the airline app a week ago but waited until yesterday to call the AAdvantage line. The miles have already been re-deposited and the fee was waived.

In early March, I had to change a rewards reservation I made on United/Lufthansa. The miles I used had been transferred to United from ChaseUltimate Rewards. I changed the reservations directly with United (on their website, not the app) and the fees were waived as well.

I’d wait awhile to call since your trip isn’t til June.