Airline Award Ticket Change & Redeposit Fees

Travel Hacks
Written By Eugene Chiang

  • Air Canada Aeroplan charges up to 100 CAD for changes, and up to 150 CAD for cancellations

  • Air France-KLM Flying Blue charges €70 for changes, and €70 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 Club charges $55 for changes, and $55 for cancellations

  • Cathay Pacific Asia Miles charges $50 for changes, and $120 for cancellations

  • Delta SkyMiles charges nothing for changes, and nothing for cancellations

  • Emirates Skywards charges $25 for changes, and $75 for cancellations

  • Etihad Guest charges up to 400 AED for changes, and up to 75% of miles for cancellations

  • EVA Air Infinity MileageLands charges $50 for changes, and $50 for cancellations

  • Finnair Plus charges €50 for changes, and €50 for cancellations

  • Iberia Club charges €25 for changes, and €25 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

  • Qatar Privilege Club charges $25-100 for changes, and $25-100 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

  • Turkish Miles&Smiles charges $70 for changes, and $70 for cancellations

  • United MileagePlus charges nothing for changes, and nothing for cancellations

  • Virgin Atlantic Flying Club charges $100 for changes, and $100 for cancellations

Air Canada Aeroplan

While Air Canada Aeroplan is one of my favorite frequent flyer programs, it doesn’t have a particularly generous or simple policy when it comes to ticket changes and redeposits. As a general rule of thumb, you can expect that a ticket change on a standard award will cost you 100 CAD, while a ticket redeposit on a standard award will cost you 150 CAD.

Fees are potentially lower if you’re booking a higher priced award, and you can also expect to pay more to refund a ticket through the call center (though there’s no reason to do that, since you can easily redeposit awards on aircanada.com). Also note that fees are per direction of travel, so you’ll pay even more if you’re traveling roundtrip on one itinerary.

For Aeroplan, you must change or cancel your award ticket at least two hours before departure, or the ticket will be forfeited. Aeroplan Super Elite members don’t pay change or cancellation fees on award tickets.

Alaska Mileage Plan

Alaska Mileage Plan doesn’t have change or redeposit fees on award tickets, making it a solid program for locking in an award, especially given all the great uses of Mileage Plan miles. The only thing to note is that Alaska charges a $12.50 partner award booking fee per direction of travel, and that’s non-refundable if you cancel.

For Mileage Plan, you must change or cancel your award ticket prior to the scheduled departure time of your flight, or the ticket will be forfeited.

American AAdvantage

American AAdvantage doesn’t have change or redeposit fees on award tickets. So this is a great program for locking in speculative awards, especially given all the great partner awards that can be booked with AAdvantage miles.

For AAdvantage, you must change or cancel your award ticket prior to the scheduled departure time of your flight, or the ticket will be forfeited.

JetBlue TrueBlue

JetBlue TrueBlue doesn’t have change or redeposit fees on TrueBlue reservations. However, the taxes & fees won’t be refunded to your original form of payment, but rather, will be added to your JetBlue Travel Bank, and can be used toward a future flight. The only JetBlue awards that aren’t refundable are Blue Basic tickets with TrueBlue points, which are subjected to a $100-200 redeposit fee in the event you need to cancel.

For TrueBlue, you must change or cancel your award ticket prior to the scheduled departure time of your flight, or the ticket will be forfeited.

United MileagePlus

United MileagePlus doesn’t have any change or redeposit fees on award tickets. So this is a great program for locking in speculative Star Alliance awards.

For MileagePlus, you must change or cancel your award ticket prior to the scheduled departure time of your flight, or the ticket will be forfeited.

Virgin Atlantic Flying Club

Virgin Atlantic Flying Club has the following charges for award changes and redeposits:

  • Changing an award costs £70 in the UK, or $100 in the United States (or an equivalent amount in another currency)

  • Redepositing an award costs £70 in the UK, or $100 in the United States (or an equivalent amount in another currency)

Virgin Atlantic Flying Club requires you to cancel award tickets at least 24 hours before departure, or else you forfeit your points. Flying Club Gold members don’t pay change or cancellation fees on award tickets.

Eugene Chiang
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