Award Ticket Change and Cancellation Summary Table

Airline Change Fee Cancellation Fee Notes
Air Canada Up to 100 CAD Up to 150 CAD Allowed up to 2 hours before departure
Air France €50 €50
Alaska None None Partner airline and phone booking fees are nonrefundable
ANA None 3,000 miles Allowed up to 96 hours before departure
AA None None
Avianca $150 $50-200 Date changes only
British Airways $55 $55 Allowed up to 24 hours before departure
Delta None None Basic Economy is subject to fees
Emirates $25 $75
Etihad 100 AED 10% of miles
JetBlue None None Basic Economy is subject to fees
Qantas 5,000 6,000
Singapore Airline $0-50 $50-75
Southwest None None
Turkish $70 $70
UA None None
Virgin Atlantic $50 $50

General Award Ticket Change/Cancellation Rules

Some rules are the same across most award tickets, so I’ll cover the basics here instead of repeating them under every airline.

  • If you change a ticket and the new itinerary requires a different number of miles, the difference will be refunded or charged accordingly.
  • In general, changes do not allow you to change the origin, destination, or passenger name. Depending on the airline, you may be able to change the date, routing, or even add a stopover.
  • US airlines and domestic US flights can generally be canceled for free within 24 hours of booking.
  • Unless otherwise stated, a cancellation fee means you pay the fee, and then the miles are automatically redeposited into your account. This is often called a redeposit fee.
  • In general, change and cancellation fees and policies depend on the airline whose miles you used to book the ticket, not necessarily the airline actually operating the flight.
  • If the airline makes a significant schedule change to your award ticket on its own initiative, such as changing the date, routing, or making a major time change, you can usually call and request a change without paying a fee, such as switching to a different time or route. Of course, the cabin stays the same.
  • Some airlines also have no-show rules for award tickets. In theory, even if you miss the flight, paying the no-show fee may still let you get your miles back.

Rules by Airline

Air Canada Aeroplan

Air Canada award tickets must be canceled or changed more than 2 hours before departure. Otherwise, the miles are forfeited and cannot be bought back. Fees depend on the fare booked and your elite status. One thing to note is that change fees are charged per one-way, while cancellations are charged per ticket. Also, if possible, avoid calling in—just make the change online. Paying an extra phone fee is usually not worth it.

Alaska Mileage Plan

Alaska Airlines is very generous here: as long as you cancel or change before departure, there is no extra fee. The miles will be redeposited directly back into your account. However, if you booked a partner award or booked over the phone, those specific fees are nonrefundable.

  • $15 nonrefundable call center booking fee — for new awards booked over the phone.
  • $12.50 nonrefundable partner award fee — applies to all awards using one of our airline partners per person, each way.

All other taxes and miles will be refunded back to the original source.

All Nippon Airways Mileage Club

Cancellations or changes must be made at least 96 hours before departure; otherwise, they are not allowed. ANA charges miles—not cash—for cancellations: 3000 miles per ticket. Other taxes and fees are refunded to the original payment method, which is nice, especially since ANA fuel surcharges can be substantial. Also note that if your ANA miles have already expired at the time of cancellation, that portion will not be refunded. ANA miles expire exactly three years after they are earned, so keep an eye on that. ANA does not charge a fee for changes, so you can lock in an itinerary and then keep checking to see whether a better connection or even a nonstop flight opens up.

If you plan to cancel and rebook, make sure you have enough ANA miles in advance. Otherwise, you can end up in an awkward situation where after canceling or changing, you still do not have enough miles to book the new award ticket. ANA miles can be transferred from AMEX Membership Rewards, but the transfer is not instant and usually takes 1-3 business days, so plan ahead. I previously booked a US-China round trip with ANA miles when my travel plans were uncertain because my visa was still pending, so I transferred an extra 3000 ANA miles from MR in advance to be ready in case I needed to change or cancel at any time.

American AAdvantage

AA is also very generous: both changes and cancellations return all taxes/fees and miles. However, cancellations must be made within one year of ticket issuance, and only before the first segment has been flown.

Avianca LifeMiles

I couldn’t even find an official explanation on Avianca’s website. According to this online blog post, changes are heavily restricted. You can only change the date, not the routing—for example, you cannot change a connecting itinerary to a nonstop. If you want to change the routing, you have to cancel and rebook. On top of that, miles are only returned 72 hours after the cancellation fee is paid, which makes the process very inconvenient.

The fee to change an award ticket is $150 regardless of route. Cancellation fees depend on cabin and distance: $50 for short-haul, and $200 for business class or long-haul. If anyone can find the official chart, feel free to leave it in the comments.

British Airways Executive Club

British Airways allows you to cancel or change an award ticket up to 24 hours before departure. If you are within that window, the miles will be forfeited. BA’s fee structure is a bit odd: you generally have two options—either forfeit the taxes and fees on the award ticket, or pay a fixed cancellation fee, as outlined below. Elite members may have these fees waived. If you used BA miles to book a domestic US AA flight, the taxes are only $5.6, so when canceling, you should just choose to forfeit the taxes. But if you booked British Airways, Japan Airlines, Cathay Pacific, or another carrier with potentially high taxes and fees, it may be better to pay the $55 cancellation fee instead.

I’ve canceled a BA ticket before and it was very easy. I did it online, forfeited the $5.6 tax, and that was it. The miles came back immediately; if you do not see them right away, just log out and back in.

Delta SkyMiles

Delta has eliminated cancellation fees on flights originating in the US and certain other countries. In Asia and Oceania, this includes: Australia, Bangladesh, China, Indonesia, Japan, Guam, Hong Kong, Mongolia, Nepal, New Zealand, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand); and India or Israel.

One exception is Basic Economy award tickets, which are not exempt from fees and may have some miles deducted upon cancellation (Delta does not clearly specify how many).

JetBlue TrueBlue

JetBlue award tickets can be changed or canceled for free, but any taxes and fees paid are not returned to your original payment method. Instead, they are refunded as travel credit to your account. One exception is JetBlue blue basic awards, which also cannot be changed or canceled for free; you need to pay $100-$200 to cancel and have the miles redeposited. The fee is $100 (North America, Central America, Caribbean), $200 (other).

Singapore KrisFlyer

Singapore Airlines charges $25-$50 to change an award ticket. If you want to cancel, it charges either $75 or $50. Interestingly, even a no-show requires a fee. Does that mean paying that fee could still get your miles back? That would actually be pretty generous.

Other Airlines

Some policies are straightforward enough that I won’t go into detail here—just refer to the table above. I also looked up and included the official cancellation links below.

Conclusion

This article mainly summarizes the award ticket change and cancellation policies and fees for several airlines we commonly use. If there are other airlines you use often, feel free to add them in the comments.