Just curious what happened if any of you cancelled a ticket that you purchased using award miles? I have tickets purchased through Air France Flying Blue program for an RSE tour beginning in October. When the EU bans Americans from entering, I feel that additional tours, including mine, will be cancelled. What happens since my flights aren’t cancelled and I am then canceling my flight?
Posted by
Houston
3517 posts
That depends on what rules the airline has in place for mileage flights. I am not familiar with Air France.
Other airlines I am familiar with will place the miles back into you account for you to use later. This may or may not be with a fee which depends on your level within the frequent flyer program. For flights cancelled by the airline, there is no fee.
If passengers from the US are not allowed into Europe at the time of your flight, I would hope that Air France would allow a no fee cancellation by you even if they do not cancel the flight.
Posted by
New York, NY
3992 posts
Both when Delta canceled an itinerary and when we canceled an itinerary, my husband used miles and Delta put those miles back in his account in real time while I was on the phone with the agent. It was instant.
I don’t have experience with Air France.
Posted by
Charlotte, NC
99 posts
You can cancel your AF reward ticket anytime before departure and have your miles redeposited. I think the redeposit fee is €45 right now. If you don’t want the miles back, there’s no fee. My past experience with AF is they redeposit the miles within a couple days. It’ll prob take longer now because Covid.
I called AF in May about canceling a couple of one way flights in Oct and was told I have to pay the redeposit fees. So I’m waiting for them to cancel the flights when it’s likely - but not certain - that they’ll waive the fees. I don’t need the miles back right away so I can wait.
You might be able to cancel online but you still have to call to get your miles back.
Posted by
Edmonds, WA 🌨 ☂
11150 posts
I had purchased flights with Alaska FF miles.
When part of the outbound flight was cancelled, they processed a refund of the fees and redeposited the miles. At that pint the return flight had not been cancelled, but the agent made the logical conclusion that if I could not take the outward flight I would not be taking the return light and processed that itinerary as well.( I had two One-way trips-- (for reasons no one could explain I was not able to use the multi city function for booking my trip)
I suspect if you cancel before they cancel, you pay whatever fees are specified in the "fare rules".
Once they cancel, one would hope they do the 'right thing' and refund & redeposit the miles at zero cost.
I suppose you could call and see what options they give you.
Posted by
Lynnwood, Washington
8340 posts
If you can wait to see if the flight is cancelled, you may have better options. I was "proactive" and cancelled a flight on British Airways that I had purchased through Alaska Airlines frequent flier miles when I knew that my RS tour would be cancelled. I received a full refund of miles and taxes. However, I didn't get my seat reservation fees back because I had cancelled.
It was only about a month later that British Airways went ahead and cancelled the entire flight. I would have been able to get the seat reservation fees back if only I had been a little more patient and willing to wait. Lesson learned.......