Airline Award Ticket Change & Cancellation Fees

Airline ticket flexibility is more important than ever before and airlines have adjusted their policies to make travel more flexible. Flexibility is one of the biggest advantages of booking an airline award ticket instead of cash.

What's the reason? If you want to redeposit the miles for an airline award ticket, you can pay a small fee. When revenue tickets have flexibility, you can use a credit towards a future ticket, usually with an expired date.

This is an area where we have seen a lot of improvement since the beginning of the Pandemic, so I wanted to compare airline award ticket change and redeposit policies.

Comparing airline award ticket change & redeposit rules

Airline award ticket change and redeposit rules are compared. The policies of some frequent flyer programs are compared. We will discuss the policies in more detail below since there are some exceptions. The policies of popular programs are listed here.

• Air Canada Aeroplan charges up to 100 CAD for changes, and up to 150 CAD for cancellations
• Air France-KLM Flying Blue charges €50 for changes, and €50 for cancellations
• Alaska Mileage Plan charges nothing for changes, and nothing for cancellations
• All Nippon Airways Mileage Club charges nothing for changes, and 3,000 miles for cancellations
• American AAdvantage charges nothing for changes, and nothing for cancellations
• Avianca LifeMiles charges $150 for changes, and $50-200 for cancellations
• British Airways Executive Club charges $55 for changes, and $55 for cancellations
• Delta SkyMiles charges nothing for changes, and nothing for cancellations
• Emirates Skywards charges nothing for changes, and nothing for cancellations
• JetBlue TrueBlue charges nothing for changes, and nothing for cancellations
• Qantas Frequent Flyer charges 5,000 points for changes, and 6,000 points for cancellations
• Singapore KrisFlyer charges $0-50 for changes, and $50-75 for cancellations
• Southwest Rapid Rewards charges nothing for changes, and nothing for cancellations
• United MileagePlus charges nothing for changes, and nothing for cancellations
• Virgin Atlantic Flying Club charges $50 for changes, and $50 for cancellations

There are a few important things to keep in mind.

• You should be concerned with the policy of the program that you booking your ticket with, rather than the airline you’re actually flying with (in situations where you book a partner award)
• A change fee refers to situations where you’re trying to change the date or time of your flight, while a redeposit refers to a situation where you’re trying to just have the miles put back in your account after cancelling a ticket
• I won’t be covering all frequent flyer programs (after all, there are hundreds), but rather will focus on programs that are either really popular due to redemption options, and/or programs partnering with major transferable points currencies
• For awards to & from the United States, you can generally expect that you can cancel them for free within 24 hours of booking, which provides flexibility for changes you need to make shortly after booking

Let's take a closer look at the policies of the programs.

Air Canada Aeroplan

Air Canada Aeroplan is one of my favorite frequent flyer programs, but it doesn't have a great policy when it comes to ticket changes and redeposits. A ticket change on a standard award will cost you 100 Canadian dollars while a ticket redeposit on a standard award will cost you 150 Canadian dollars.

If you book a higher priced award, you can expect to pay less in fees and more in refunds through the call center, since you can redeposit awards on aircanada.com. Fees are per direction of travel so you will pay more if you travel on one itinerary.

Air France-KLM Flying Blue

The cost of changing or redepositing an award ticket is the same regardless of what you do with it.

Alaska Mileage Plan

Alaska Mileage Plan has no change or redeposit fees on award tickets, which makes it a great program for locking in an award, especially given all the great uses of Mileage Plan miles.

All Nippon Airways Mileage Club

The Star Alliance redemption values are great, but the program can be a bit complex. Changes to the date and time of award ticket flights can be made for free, but they have to be made at least 96 hours before the flight leaves.

The mileage club charges miles for redepositing award tickets. You can expect to pay a lot of money for tickets. Your award taxes and fees will be paid back.

American AAdvantage

There are no redeposit fees on award tickets anymore. It's a great program for locking in speculative awards since all the partner awards can be booked with AAdvantage miles.

Avianca LifeMiles

Star Alliance first and business class awards use the Avianca Lifemiles program. If you want to change to a LifeMiles award ticket, you will have to pay $150. If you want to redeposit your ticket, you will have to pay a fee. You can expect to pay between $50 and $200 for a short haul economy award ticket.

British Airways Executive Club

The British Airways Executive Club has a lot of redemption options. If you make a change to an award ticket online, it will cost you $55, but if you do it via the call center, you'll have to pay an additional $25.

Depending on where you are in the world, the fee is different. You can pay 42.50 in the European Union or £35 in the United Kingdom right now. British Airways Executive Club requires you to cancel your award tickets at least 24 hours before your departure so you can't get a refund.

You don't have to pay the full fee to redeposit an award ticket if you cancel it withAvios. If you pay the fee, you will be able to get your money back.

If you booked an award on American, you would usually only pay $5.60 in taxes. If you forfeited $5.60, you could get your money back.

Delta SkyMiles

Delta SkyMiles no longer has change or redeposit fees on reservations when they originate in the US and Canada. Basic economy tickets with SkyMiles don't offer the same flexibility as those with other airlines. Changes or redeposit fees are still charged for tickets from outside of the United States and Canada.

Emirates Skywards

The best way to book a first class award is through the Skywards program. Change and redeposit fees were eliminated by the airline during the Pandemic. There is no timetable for when these will be reintroduced.

JetBlue TrueBlue

Change or redeposit fees on TrueBlue reservations have been eliminated. The taxes and fees will be added to your travel bank and can be used for a future flight. Blue Basic tickets with TrueBlue points are the only awards that are not subject to a redeposit fee.

Qantas Frequent Flyer

Redeposits with points are charged by Qantas Frequent Flyer. Redepositing your Qantas Frequent Flyer award ticket will cost you 6,000 points, while changing your Qantas Frequent Flyer award ticket will cost you 5000 points.

Singapore KrisFlyer

The best program for booking premium cabins is Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer. Depending on whether you are booking a Saver or Advantage award, the program's fees are different.

• Changing a Saver award ticket costs $25-50, changing an Advantage award ticket costs $0-25
• Redepositing a Saver award ticket costs $75, redepositing an Advantage award ticket costs $50

Southwest Rapid Rewards

Southwest Rapid rewards don't have redeposit fees or change fees. This was the first major program to have such a policy, and the airline still takes a very customer-friendly approach with this.

United MileagePlus

There are no redeposit fees on award tickets. This is a good program for Star Alliance awards.

Virgin Atlantic Flying Club

There are charges for award changes and redeposits.

• Changing an award costs £30 in the UK, or $50 in the United States (or an equivalent amount in another currency)
• Redepositing an award costs £30 in the UK, or $50 in the United States (or an equivalent amount in another currency)

When it comes to changing or canceling tickets, airline award tickets offer a number of advantages. Change or redeposit fees are not included in many frequent flyer programs today.

If it is speculative in nature, I think these policies are worth keeping in mind. I like the policies of Alaska Mileage Plan and American AAdvantage.

If you have an award ticket change or redeposit experience to share, please let us know in the comments section.