Avianca "Lifemiles" - Questions and Discussion

[BobbyFlyer]

re: Avianca "Life Miles" - Questions and Discussion

I'm up to my 20th email with them on this....and again have requested this to be sorted...just not getting traction...

 

[MEL_Traveller]

re: Avianca "Life Miles" - Questions and Discussion

You could go to your credit card company and do a charge back... however... the disadvantage is that you'll lose on any exchange rate difference (the aussie has dropped a lot during that period). But you will get money with some certainty.

A chargeback will void the transaction outright, whereas LM refunding the money will do so in USD.

 

[robcuk]

re: Avianca "Life Miles" - Questions and Discussion

Hi lifemile gurus. I've got a dilemma and would appreciate advice on this. Last Sept made a booking which took my monies US$2.5k but never issued ticket, so i emailed lifemiles and requested refund. They recognised the issue and said it'd be refunded in Oct/Nov, as it'd take normal 30 business days to be processed. Waited until early Dec, then emailed them back said i hadnt received it, they checked and said they escalated and to wait another 10 days....so its January and a whole new year and still no monies.....any suggestions on tactics to get my monies back?....i hate trying to call them and listening to the damn avianca jingle....

Hi,

I had a similar problem in that I wasn't refunded taxes or fees on a booking I cancelled. I sent so many emails to them with screenshots of the booking and my credit card statement but I never received it. In the end I esculated the problem to my credit card, they refunded me within a month and investigated it. I recently cancelled the card and I was told they closed the case - so all good but the way Lifemiles handled it was terrible. Still the cancellation was for an LH F redemption so it was worth it.

As KPC keep emailing and perhaps contact your credit card supplier.

All the best

 

[coolkid101]

re: Avianca "Life Miles" - Questions and Discussion

You could go to your credit card company and do a charge back... however... the disadvantage is that you'll lose on any exchange rate difference (the aussie has dropped a lot during that period). But you will get money with some certainty.

A chargeback will void the transaction outright, whereas LM refunding the money will do so in USD.

last time i had to chargeback with citibank they gave me back my money immediately while the investigated the case. was expecting a letter or email with the outcome but nothing ever came so the money just stayed in my account.

 

[VAG newbie]

re: Avianca "Life Miles" - Questions and Discussion

Hi,

I had a similar problem in that I wasn't refunded taxes or fees on a booking I cancelled. I sent so many emails to them with screenshots of the booking and my credit card statement but I never received it. In the end I esculated the problem to my credit card, they refunded me within a month and investigated it. I recently cancelled the card and I was told they closed the case - so all good but the way Lifemiles handled it was terrible. Still the cancellation was for an LH F redemption so it was worth it.

As KPC keep emailing and perhaps contact your credit card supplier.

All the best

I cancelled booking once and the tax eventually got refunded. It was only about $90 so I completely forgot about it. It took about 6 months before it was refunded. During the 6 months AUD had slumped >10% so I ended up with more money (but lost more points with CC)

The moral of the story, be very careful when you book with LM. Make sure that is the day you want, and the airline with the right seat you want. Once booked, unless you really can't make the trip, otherwise, don't cancel the ticket! It's a real hassle to do so!

 

[Beta4Me]

re: Avianca "Life Miles" - Questions and Discussion

I cancelled booking once and the tax eventually got refunded. It was only about $90 so I completely forgot about it. It took about 6 months before it was refunded. During the 6 months AUD had slumped >10% so I ended up with more money (but lost more points with CC)

The moral of the story, be very careful when you book with LM. Make sure that is the day you want, and the airline with the right seat you want. Once booked, unless you really can't make the trip, otherwise, don't cancel the ticket! It's a real hassle to do so!

I've cancelled heaps (6?) of LifeMiles bookings and, whilst tedious, it was a very straightforward process each tkme and taxes were refunded within a month.

 

[anna2103]

re: Avianca "Life Miles" - Questions and Discussion

Avianca website seems to be completely down at the moment

 

[casanovawa]

re: Avianca "Life Miles" - Questions and Discussion

Threaten to escalate it with the DOT if it involves the US???

 

[Alanslegal]

re: Avianca "Life Miles" - Questions and Discussion

Threaten to escalate it with the DOT if it involves the US???

Someone can correct me if I am wrong but I believe DOT may refuse to assist non-US citizens.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

re: Avianca "Life Miles" - Questions and Discussion

Someone can correct me if I am wrong but I believe DOT may refuse to assist non-US citizens.

As long as there is nexus I can't see why it would exclude non-US citizens.

There must be some connection with the US... for example the principal place of business, or an itinerary/transaction which falls under DOT jurisdiction (to/from/within the USA).

 

[JessicaTam]

re: Avianca "Life Miles" - Questions and Discussion

I have had no trouble cancelling LM tickets. Last one admittedly took 20 minutes, but apart from that was quite painless. Points refunded before I had finished on the phone, and taxes within a few days.

 

[anna2103]

re: Avianca "Life Miles" - Questions and Discussion

Data point: me refund was 3 calls, there credit card machine was not working - took 2 days. Refund of taxes was 6 weeks. For those that read my earlier post today, website is now working, but of course no connections have been fixed in their website maintainence period!!!

 

[kevinyhli]

re: Avianca "Life Miles" - Questions and Discussion

I came across some interesting availabilities today while searching for availability back to Australia for end of January.

Looking at BKK-MEL - the system prompted the following:

MS960 BKK-KUL 1410-1735
SQ117 KUL-SIN 1850-1945
SQ227 SIN-MEL 2115-0745+1 (note that this is also a 77W flight)



Interestingly looking at KUL-MEL - the system did not come up with the SQ flights but came up with the following:
LH782 KUL-CGK 1820-1905
SQ967 CGK-SIN 2020-2255
SQ237 SIN-MEL 2350-1020



I know that there are issues with LM displaying SQ availability for any flights touching Australia, but did I just found the crack to prompt LM into displaying SQ Australia availabilities?

It seems that as long as there is a tag flight on another Star Alliance carrier to start the journey with, and if the stars line up, SQ availabilities could come up?

Would love to hear if anyone are able to find other similar scenarios or have been able to ticket this kind of itineraries.

 

[st4ff]

re: Avianca "Life Miles" - Questions and Discussion

I came across some interesting availabilities today while searching for availability back to Australia for end of January.

Great find. 3 legs is not ideal, but it is refreshing to see a MEL J itinerary on SQ on Lifemiles again.

 

[bcworld]

re: Avianca "Life Miles" - Questions and Discussion

I know that there are issues with LM displaying SQ availability for any flights touching Australia, but did I just found the crack to prompt LM into displaying SQ Australia availabilities?

It seems that as long as there is a tag flight on another Star Alliance carrier to start the journey with, and if the stars line up, SQ availabilities could come up?

This type of thing has come up before. If you actually select the option e.g. your BKK-MEL date, and click to the next step, this happens:

Sorry, There was problem while processing your transaction.
Please try again.If the problem persists or you need additional information please contact LifeMiles Support.

 

[VAG newbie]

re: Avianca "Life Miles" - Questions and Discussion

This type of thing has come up before. If you actually select the option e.g. your BKK-MEL date, and click to the next step, this happens:

Maybe someone can take a screenshot and tell LM all you want is the SIN-MEL leg and see what happens. You never know!

 

[MEL_Traveller]

re: Avianca "Life Miles" - Questions and Discussion

Lifemiles payment frustrations continue....

Friend rang to make a simple date change - $150 as expected. Card details provided.

new itinerary sent but on calling the airline to reserve seats was told the new date hadn't been formally ticketed.

Friend contacted LM to be told there was a problem processing payment, and another attempt was made. Two in fact.

After that, LM informed friend that not only the credit card, but they themselves have now been blocked for payment and they need to get a friend to call with a new credit card! And advised a note has been put into the booking to that effect.

CC not a problem, not blocked by the bank.

Frustrating. (And they didn't use skype so have incurred around $200 in phone bills for calls totalling over an hour to Europe, USA and Columbian call centres.)

 

[burmans]

re: Avianca "Life Miles" - Questions and Discussion

(And they didn't use skype so have incurred around $200 in phone bills for calls totalling over an hour to Europe, USA and Columbian call centres.)

Not sure what you mean here, they dont need to use skpe, have used skype to call a landline a number of times, they dont need to use it?

 

[sergeyvzn]

re: Avianca "Life Miles" - Questions and Discussion

Same question- how can you incur $200 in phone calls? You can use Skype to call a land line, it costs next to nothing

 

[Aussie_flyer]

re: Avianca "Life Miles" - Questions and Discussion

Also who date changes? Cancel and rebook is cheaper