How Do I Cancel a Flight and Get a Refund from Iberia – The Iberia Airlines Cancelation Policy and Refund Fees
Flight cancelation or change is not the most desired thing for a passenger. With every flight change or ticket cancelation comes the hassle of rebooking, claiming and receiving a refund. And more often than not passengers end up paying hefty penalties, high amounts of fare differences and in worst cases losing all their booking amounts after flight cancelations. Therefore, knowledge of the cancelation terms and conditions, cancelation fees and refund norms are a must before requesting a flight cancelation. Also, passengers should be well-informed about different fare options available with the airlines before booking tickets to prevent losses due to cancelation. The Iberia Airlines Cancelation policy is a combination of all of the above, and they are discussed in great detail below from all possible angles.
The Iberia Airlines Cancellation Policy
First of all, Iberia Airlines flight cancelations and refunds are not free for all fares and ticketing classes. On select restricted fares, passengers can cancel their flights and ask for refunds by paying fees. For certain restricted fares, cancelations and refunds are not allowed at all. There are also unrestricted fares on which both cancelations and refunds are allowed for free. The Iberia Airlines Cancellation Policy also doesn’t have a free 24-hour cancelation window for passengers. Under the policy, flight changes, cancelations and refunds are subject to the terms and conditions associated with each fare type. Moreover, passengers are not issued any cash refund for flight cancelations with Iberia. They are only provided voucher refunds which can be used for future purchases. The Iberia Airlines Cancellation Policy is a mixture of many such cancelation and refund guidelines, terms and conditions and discussions on cancelation and refund procedures.
The policy has been discussed in the following sections elaborately. For an in-depth understanding of the same, however, knowledge of the Iberia fare types is essential which are discussed below.
Iberia Airlines fare types
To address customer needs, Iberia Airlines has introduced various fare types and ticketing classes that offer a variety of flexibility to customers. There are three types of ticketing classes – Economy, Premium Economy and Business. As far as eligibility for cancelation and refund is concerned, each one of these ticketing classes has flexible ticket options that allow passengers to cancel their flight tickets without any cancelation fees and get up to 100% voucher refund upon cancelation. More details are discussed below,
Economy Cabin
Iberia Airlines has four types of fares in the Economy class or Economy Cabin. These are,
- i. Basic
- ii. Optimal
- iii. Comfort
- iv. Flexible
While the Basic Economy and the Optimal fares allow changes and cancelations for a fee, refunds are not allowed on any one of them. The Comfort fares are also non-refundable along with these two, although one free flight change is allowed in this case. But passengers can completely cancel their flight tickets, or change flights free of cost and get up to 100% refund if they choose the flexible fares. Flexible tickets allow passengers to select any one of three refund options – one free flight change, one voucher refund or a combination of both.
Premium Economy Fares
There are three types of fares in the Iberia Premium Economy Class – Optimal, Comfort and Flexible. Flight changes and cancelations are allowed for a change fee on the Optimal fares while refunds are fully restricted. The Premium Economy Comfort fares on the other hand offer one free change in flight and refunds for a fee. The Flexible fares in this segment too allow passengers to make free changes and cancelations and receive refunds.
Business Class
Iberia Business Class fares offer many privileges, flexibilities and special treatment to passengers. Like the Premium Economy, it also has three types of fares – Optimal, Comfort and Flexible. The Optimal and Comfort are restricted fares where refunds are either allowed for a fee or not allowed at all. Changes and cancelations are also chargeable in this segment. On the contrary, Flexible fares are unrestricted where free cancelations, changes and various types of refunds are allowed.
Passengers, who have booked fares other than the Flexible, can also receive similar benefits such as free flight changes, cancelations and refunds by choosing the “Make your ticket flexible” option and adding flexibility to their existing fares.
The Iberia Airlines Cancelation Policy Guidelines
The Iberia Airlines Cancelation norms are devoid of complexities. The terms and conditions are detailed below in the following guidelines.
- i. The Iberia Airlines Cancelation Policy allows passengers to cancel their flights or make changes anytime they want before scheduled departure, but waivers of cancelation and refund fees and refunds depend on whether they’vepurchased restricted or unrestricted fares. In Iberia terms, restricted fares are non-refundable and unrestricted fares are refundable.
- ii. As per the Iberia Airlines Cancelation Policy, cancelations, flight changes and refunds are allowed on select restricted faresagainst cancelation and refund fees.
- iii. For fares like Basic Economy, cancelations, changes and refunds are not allowed in any situations under the general guidelines.
- iv. Iberia Airlines has Flexible fares in each ticketing class where cancelations, flight changes and refunds are allowed completely free of cost.
- v. Iberia Airlines doesn’t offer cash refunds to passengers under normal conditions. Passengers receive voucher refunds against cancelations which can be used for future flight bookings and non-ticket purchases.
- vi. Voucher refunds for each canceled flight are sent to the email ids of passengers within 7 business days of submitting refund requests. Each voucher refund contains one unique identification code which must be used for all future flight bookings and non-ticket purchases.
- vii. For multiple flight cancelations by a single passenger, separate voucher refunds are sent to his email id which can be combined to make a single purchase in the future.
- viii. Exemptions to the refund rules are made when passengers cancel their flights due to significant delays in departures or uncommunicated cancelations by Iberia due to reasons that could be avoided with timely actions. Passengers are eligible to get cash reimbursements in such cases along with cash compensations under special cancelation provisions.
- ix. As per the Iberia Airlines flight cancelation policy, passengers are eligible to cancel tickets purchased with Avios and get refunds including getting their Avios back. But respective fare rules apply to such refunds.
- x. For cancelation of award tickets and subsequent refunds in the Premium Economy and Business segments, passengers have to pay a penalty of €25, but such changes and refunds are permitted up to 24 hours before original departure.
- xi. Passengers can also get their Avios back without any penalty after the cancelation of Economy tickets up to 24 hours before the original departure.
- xii. Passengers, who have purchased products and services using Avios from non-airline partners of Iberia Airlines during flight reservations, have to separately apply for refunds with each one of them after the cancelation of the flights, and such refunds would be subject to the terms of their respective cancelation and refund policies.
- xiii. Iberia Airlines doesn’t have a 24-hour Booking or cancelation policy like other airlines. So, passengers don’t have any added advantage if they cancel their flights within 24 hours of booking. Similarly, they don’t lose anything extra for canceling their reservations beyond 24 hours.
- xiv. Passengers are charged feesfor processing refund requests at the Iberia offices and through phone calls. They are also charged fees for changing or cancelingflights through Iberia offices or phone calls. These fees vary from country to country.
How To Cancel Iberia Airlines Flight?
Air ticket cancelations are punishing at times leading to lots of hassles, unnecessary wastage of time and considerable monetary losses. But all of these can be prevented with prior knowledge and awareness about the cancelation and refund processes and the related terms and conditions. With Iberia Airlines, canceling flight tickets is easy. There are both online and offline methods of air ticket cancelation which are discussed below.
Online Ticket Cancelation
Among the different processes of air ticket cancelation, the online method is probably the best. The online flight cancelation method is both convenient and time-saving and is cost-effective as well. The Iberia Airlines online booking cancelation process is also very easy to follow. The entire process is described in the following steps.
- i. To cancel your Iberia flight ticket online, first, type the URL of the Iberia Airlines official website, www.iberia.com on your browser and press Enter. On the home page,hover the mouse over the second menu called ‘Your Flights’ on the menu bar.
- ii. This would open a dropdown box with multiple submenu options grouped under three different columns. Click on the first submenu called “Manage your booking” under the Bookings column.
- iii. This would open the “Manage your booking” page with two types of login options. You can log in with your flight details by entering your booking code and your last name inside designated boxes and clicking on the red color “Manage your booking” tab. You can also sign in using your email and password if you already have your account signed up with Iberia.
- iv. You will find the Cancel Reservation option once you log in. Retrieve your flight details first by providing your booking confirmation number. Then select the flight you want to cancel and follow the prompts to lodge your cancelation request.
- v. Select the refund options provided by Iberia and submit the refund request.
- Your flight would be canceled within a very short time and your refund would be processed within 7 business days. You will be notified of the same by email.
Ticket Cancelation Via Phone Call
Passengers can also make cancelation and refund requests through phone calls to Iberia Airlines. They can contact Iberia Airlines at the helpdesk number +1- 800-772-4642 or +1-888-261-0054 and talk to anIberia Airlines representative live before submitting their cancelation requests. However, Iberia Airlines charges a change fee as well as a refund fee from passengers for processing cancelation and refund requests on restricted fares via phone calls. The penalty charges vary from country to country where the travel originates.
Ticket Cancelation from Iberia Office
Those who are not comfortable with the online flight cancelation process or don’t have the patience to wait in long queues for a phone call can cancel their Iberia flights by visiting the local offices of Iberia Airlines or the nearest airport kiosks. But passengers are charged both the change and refund fees for processing cancelation and refund requests on restricted fares through Iberia offices. The fee is different for different countries where the travel originates.
Iberia Airlines Avios Cancelation Policy
Avios is the reward point that passengers earn and accrue for flying often with Iberia. They can bag lucrative deals on flight bookings from time to time using these Avios points. Avios are refundable in case passengers are forced to cancel their Iberia reservations due to unavoidable circumstances. The Iberia Airlines Avios Cancelation Policy is a set of norms that guide passengers and shed some light on Avios refunds.The key points are as follows.
- i. If tickets purchased with Avios points are canceled, refunds are issued as per the individual fare rules and guidelines.
- ii. As per the Iberia Airlines Cancelation Policy, for Economy tickets purchased with Avios, flight changes, cancelations and refunds are permitted in accordance with the applicable fare rules up to 24 hours before the original departure.
- iii. For Premium Economy tickets purchased with Avios, changes and refunds are allowed up to 24 hours prior to the original departure for a penalty of €25. No refund requests would be entertained for unflown segments after the original departure.
- iv. For Business fares purchased with Avios points, the rule remains the same as the Premium Economy.
- v. For products and services purchased with Avios points from non-airline Iberia partners like hotels and transport companies, cancelation and refund requests must be dealt with separately with each of the service providers and refund on such products would solely depend on their respective cancelation and refund policies.
Iberia Airlines Cancellation Fees
Iberia Airlines charges fees for flight changes and refunds from passengers on restricted fares provided they are made from the Iberia offices or through phone calls. The applicability of such fees depends on the respective fare rules. Also, the fees vary from country to country. For example, the flight change and refund fees for travel originating in Germany are €30 each which is $70 for Argentina. The complete list of applicable fares is available on the official website of Iberia Airlines under the service fees section. Unrestricted fares in each class like Flexible tickets are exempt from flight change and refund fees under the Iberia Airlines cancelation policy. The Iberia Airlines Cancelation fees are also waived for passengers who buy the “Make your ticket flexible” option as add-ons to their existing restricted fares.
The Iberia Airlines Refund Policy
The Iberia Airlines Flexible ticket offers three types of refund options against flight cancelations which are Voucher Refund, one free flight change and a combination of both. Passengers who have purchased unrestricted fares with Iberia or have added a Flexible ticket option as an extra to their restricted tickets are eligible to get voucher refunds. But as per the Iberia Airlines Refund policy, passengers may not receive full voucher refunds in all cases. Find more details about the policy and the associated terms and conditions below.
- i. As per the Iberia Airlines Refund policy, passengers become eligible for voucher refunds if they purchase unrestricted fares or choose to add the “Make your ticket flexible” option as an add-on to their restricted fares.
- ii. Passengers can also request voucher refunds if their flights are significantly delayed or canceled by Iberia Airlines.
- iii. Voucher refunds can’t be compared to cash refunds and they are similar to flight credits offered against cancelations by other airlines. These vouchers have a non-extendable one-year expiry starting from the date of issuance.
- iv. Voucher refunds are valid for all direct flights operated by Iberia and the connecting flights operated by its partner airlines.
- v. As per the Iberia Airlines Refund policy, the voucher refunds issued by the airline may not be equivalent to 100 % of the money paid during bookings by the passengers. Iberia issues voucher refunds worth 80% of passengers booking money for short and medium-distance flights while voucher refunds worth 100% of booking money are issued against cancelations of long-distance flights.
- vi. Iberia Airlines vouchers include fares, taxes, baggage expenditures and expenses towards preferred seating arrangements. They don’t include ancillary costs such as the amounts paid by passengers during ticket booking for travel insurance, car rentals and hotels.
- vii. To get voucher refunds from Iberia Airlines, passengers must request the same at least 15 days prior to the scheduled departure of the changed or canceled flight.
- viii. As per the Iberia Airlines Refund policy, passengers are not eligible for voucher refunds if they have hotel or car bookings along with flight tickets.
- ix. The Iberia Airlines Cancelation policy considers voucher refunds as full and final refunds against changed or canceled tickets. No cash refund can be claimed after a voucher refund has been issued by Iberia.
- x. The Iberia Airlines voucher refunds can be used for all purposes except for buying Air Shuttle flights.
- xi. Under the Iberia Airlines Refund policy, passengers can also choose “one free flight change” as a refund option. With this type of refund option, passengers can change the date and time of scheduled flights and even alter the origins and destinations free of cost.
- xii. Though the “one free flight change” refund option waives change fees once for passengers who makeflight changes, they have to pay the fare differences if the new fares are higher than the original ones. With this refund option selected and used, passengers would be charged for all subsequent changes.
- xiii. Passengers receive identification codes in their registered emails when they request voucher refunds. The same codes should be used for future uses. Passengers get an identification code against each flight changed or canceled and each voucher requested.
- xiv. Passengers who have multiple vouchers can combine them to make a single purchase.
- xv. If passengers’ bookings are canceled by Iberia due to any reason that could be avoided with timely actions on Iberia’s part, and if passengers are not provided re-routing options at least seven days before departure, they can claim a full cash refund and are eligible to get additional compensation between €125 and €300 depending upon fulfillment of certain additional conditions.
- xvi. Passengers may receive reimbursements by cash, electronic bank transfers, bank cheques or travel vouchers.
- xvii. As per the Iberia Airlines Cancelation policy, passengers are also entitled to reimbursements if their flights are delayed by more than 5 hours from the scheduled departure.