LOT Polish Airlines Cancellation Policy

How to Cancel and Refund a Ticket – The LOT Polish Airlines Cancelation Policy and Refund Policy

Life is unpredictable. It can change anytime, and so can our travel plans. Life is full of unforeseeable events and circumstances. And sometimes, such events do decide how, when and where we travel. Therefore, from the passenger’s point of view, it is important to know about an airline’s cancelation policy and the terms and conditions for a refund before booking a flight ticket so that in the likely event of a change in travel plan, monetary losses can be avoided. The LOT Polish Airlines Cancelation policy protects passengers’ interests by introducing favorable terms and conditions for flight cancelation, clear-cut flight change guidelines and easy-to-follow processes for getting quicker refunds. The policy is discussed in detail below.

The LOT Polish Airlines Cancellation Policy

The LOT Polish Airlines Cancellation Policycombines processes and guidelines for smoother flight changes, cancelations and refunds, considering that changes in passenger’s travel plans can happen anytime due to unavoidable circumstances. The policy talks aboutcanceled flights, cancelation fees, and refund-claiming procedures, and discusses the terms and conditions under which refunds can be claimed.

For a clear understanding of the LOT Polish Airlines cancellation policy, it is important to know about the various ticketing classes and different fare types introduced by LOT Polish Airlines and the cancelation and refund norms associated with them.So, before delving deep into the cancelation policy, let’s begin the discussion with fares and ticketing classes.

To start with, LOT Polish Airlines has 3 types of ticketing classes which are,

1. i. Economy
2. ii. Premium Economy
3. iii. Business

Each one of these ticketing classes has a variety of fares on offer that are referred to as fare families in the LOT Polish terminology. The airline offers two cabin classes, namely LOT Economy and LOT Business on short and medium-distance flights within Europe and to the Middle East. On long-distance flights, there is an addition of LOT Premium Economy to the other two existing classes. LOT Economy is also available on domestic flights inside the Republic of Poland. Now, find more details about each one of them below and learn about various fare types along with the cancelation and refund norms pertaining to them.

LOT Economy Class:

In the Economy Class, LOT Polish offers five types of fares – LOT Economy Crazy, LOT Economy Promo, LOT Economy Saver, LOT Economy Flex and LOT Economy Lux.The domestic and short distance segment has one additional fare called LOT Economy Simple. Passengers are eligible for free flight changes, cancelations and refunds if they book the LOT Economy Flex and LOT Economy Lux fares. The Economy Promo and Saver fares don’t offer the flexibility to make flight changes, cancelation and refunds in normal conditions, but do offer these services for a fee. And the Economy Crazy and Economy Simple fares don’t allow changes and refunds at all.

LOT Premium Economy Class:

TheLOT Polish Airlines Premium Economy Class includes four types of fares – LOT Premium Crazy, LOT Premium Promo, LOT Premium Saver, LOT Premium Flex. Out of these four, only the Premium Flex fare allows free changes, cancelations and refunds. The other three fares offer these services for a fee.

LOT Business Class:

The LOT Business Class is present on both short and long-distance flights. It includes five types of fares – LOT Business Crazy, LOT Business Promo, LOT Business Saver, LOT Business Flex and LOT Business Lux. The Business Flex and Lux fares offer free flight changes, cancelations and refunds while the rest of the three fares provide these services against applicable fees.

Flight Award Tickets

Flight Award tickets are tickets that were purchased using reward points gathered againstaccrued miles. As per theLOT Polish Airlines cancelation norms, passengers are allowed to cancel the flight award tickets and get their miles redeposited to their Miles& More accounts by paying a nominal cancelation fee of €50. The cancelation fee on flight award tickets is waived for certain fares while the fee could be higher in other cases as well.

The LOT Polish Airlines Cancelation Policy Guidelines

LOT Polish Airlines Cancelation policy is very simple and easy to understand. The entire policy has been summarized in the following terms and conditions.

1. i. LOT Polish Airlines allows passengers to cancel their tickets anytime they want before departure. For some fares, cancelations and refunds are chargeable while for others these services are offered free of cost.
2. ii. For flights that have been canceled by LOT Polish Airlines without information or warning to passengers or where passengers have been denied boarding due to any reason, LOT Polish provides the option to change flights, rebook or exchange the canceledtickets for vouchers that could be redeemed for future purchases.
3. iii. As per the LOT Polish Airlines cancelation norms, the airline can’t be held responsible for canceled tickets if the events due to which the tickets were canceled were beyond LOT’s control. Ex: bad weather, an outbreak of a disease or a law and order situation
4. iv. For canceled and delayed flights, LOT Polish pays cash compensations to passengers ranging between €250 and €600 per ticket as per the European Union regulations.
5. v. Passengers canceling their flight award tickets can get their miles back to their Miles & More accounts but for a fee of €50 per ticket as per the LOT Polish Airlines Cancelation policy.
6. vi. Passengers are also allowed under the policy to make changes to and rebook flight award tickets. A rebooking fee of €50 per ticket applies in this case as well. However, the fee may vary and on refundable tickets purchased with flight reward points, such fees may not apply.
7. vii. The LOT Polish Airlines flight cancelation policy allows flight cancelations and changes to flight bookings up to 3 hours before scheduled departure.
8. viii. The LOT Polish Airlines 24-hour booking policy named, Procedure 24H,permits passengers to cancel flights and get 100% cash refunds without paying any cancelation or refund fee within 24 hours of booking.
9. ix. For the 24-hour cancelationrules to apply, the LOT Polish flight tickets should be canceled strictly within 24 hours from the exact time of purchase and they must be purchased online through the official LOT Polish website, or from the Contact Centers or the authorized travel agents.
10. x. LOT Polish Airlines doesn’t issue any cash refund against cancelation that has been initiated by a passenger. Refunds are issued only in the form of vouchers which can be used for all future purchases of tickets and non-ticket items. Vouchers can also be issued against the cancelation of non-refundable tickets for a cancelation and refund fee.
11. xi. For canceled tickets, passengers are offered two types of refund options under the LOT Polish Airlines cancelation policy. Full cash refunds with compensations can be returned to the original forms of payment after submission of the refund request. Or passengers may choose to receive voucher refunds which would be valid for two years from the date of issuance.
12. xii. Passengers can also get full cash refunds to their original forms of payment if they cancel their reservations within 24 hours of booking under Procedure 24H or the LOT Polish 24-hour cancelation policy.
13. xiii. Cancelations and refunds are not allowed on LOT Economy Simple fares which are only available in the domestic and short-haul segments.
14. xiv. Cancelations and refunds are allowed but for a fee on Crazy, Promo and Saver fares across all the three ticketing classes as per the LOT cancelation policy.
15. xv. Flex and Lux are refundable fares. Services like changes, cancelations and refunds are provided free of cost for these fares.

How To Cancel LOT Polish Airlines Flight?

There may be many different ways to cancel flight tickets, but only a few of them are commonly used due to their ease of applicability. Likewise, there are three methods of canceling your LOT Polish Airlines flight tickets. Here they are.

Online Ticket Cancelation

LOT Polish passengers can cancel their flights online from the comfort of their homes or offices through the LOT Polish official website. The step-by-step process is discussed below.

1. i. First, visit the home page of the LOT Polish Airlines official website, www.lot.com . On the home page,find the “Manage Booking” menu which is the second menu on the menu bar on top of the page right below the airline’s logo. Click on the menu.
2. ii. This would open a dropdown box. Provide your booking reference number and surname in the designated boxes and click on the Next tab.
3. iii. Your flight details would be retrieved once you enter the Manage Booking section of the website. Here you can make changes to your flight or cancel it completely by submitting a cancelation request.
4. iv. You’ll also find options for filling up the ticket refund form here. Fill up the form and submit it.
5. v. Your refund would be processed once the cancelation process is complete. The refund amount you’ll get depends on fare conditions.

Offline Cancelation Via Phone Call

Passengers can also make changes to flights or cancel them completely by contacting the LOT Polish AirlinesContact Center on the toll-free phone numbers, 212-789-0970or +1-888-261-0054, and requesting the LOT Polish Airlines representatives for the same. They need to provide details likethe booking confirmation numbersand surnames to the representatives before they can process the cancelation and refund requests.

Offline Flight Cancelation through Travel Agents

Passengers who have bought their LOT Polish flight tickets from travel agents can cancel their reservations and process their refund requests through them. The authorized travel agents complete the entire cancelation and refund process much quicker and passengers can get their flights canceled without any hassle.

LOT Polish Airlines Flight Award Ticket Cancelation Policy

Frequent LOT Polish fliers with Miles & More accounts can purchase flight award tickets by redeeming their accrued miles. Passengers can cancel, make changes to or rebook these flight award tickets and get their miles back. The terms and conditions associated with the cancelations of flight award tickets or changes in them are mentioned below.

1. i. Passengers canceling their flight award tickets can get their award miles redeposited to their Miles & More accounts once the cancelation process gets completed.
2. ii. Under the policy, passengers can also make flight changes and rebook the flight award tickets until their validity expires.
3. iii. Passengers can only make changes to the date and time of select flight award tickets as per the LOT Polish Airlines Flight Award Ticket Cancelation Policy. But they are not allowed to make changes to the routes. Also, changes are not allowed on tickets bought with Fly Smart flight awards and under the Mileage Bargains scheme once they are issued.
4. iv. Passengers are charged a fee of €50 per ticket for canceling or rebooking flight award tickets. The fee may vary depending on the fare types. There could also be flight award tickets where no cancelation or change fee is charged.

The LOT Polish Airlines Procedure 24H

LOT Polishhas a 24-hour cancelation policy, which is codenamed Procedure 24H. This 24-hour cancelation policy allows passengers to cancel their flight tickets without any negative consequences within 24 hours of booking. In other words, under this policy, passengers can cancel their reservations and get full refunds without paying any penaltywithin 24 hours of booking. The terms and conditions which must be met for this policy to work are mentioned below.

1. i. To be eligible for penalty-free cancelations and refunds, individual LOT Polish flight tickets must be canceled within 24 hours of booking and the ticketsmust have been purchased online through the official website of the airline, or offline from the LOT Polish Contact Centers and via travel agents.
2. ii. Only ticket numbers beginning with 080 are eligible for free cancelations and refunds within 24 hours.
3. iii. The refund request under the procedure must be submitted via LOT Polish Contact Center or LOT Polish authorized travel agency or social media handles like Facebook Messenger within 24 hours of purchase and not later than 6 hours prior to the original departure in case of last-minute bookings.

LOT Polish Airlines Cancellation Fees

LOT Polish Airlines doesn’t charge any cancelation fee on refundable fares such as the Flex and Lux across ticketing classes. But a cancelation fee is charged on the rest of the fares such as the Crazy, Promo and Saver. The cancelation fee varies across classes and it is different for domestic and international flights.Please note that LOT Polish Airlines doesn’t charge any cancelation fee on any of the fares within 24 hours of booking. Cancelation fees are levied only after 24 hours. The summary of the charges is included in the tables below.

Domestic Flights

International Flights

Award Ticket

The LOT Polish Airlines Refund Policy

There are three aspects toLOT Polish Airlines refunds – first, refunds on Cancelled flights, second, refunds against cancelation requested by Passengers and third, refunds under the 24-hour cancelation policy. The LOT Polish Airlines Refund policy efficiently deals with all these aspects and clearly lays down the terms and conditions as well as the guidelines excerpts from which are discussed below.

Ticket Refund on Canceled Flights

Flights that are canceled by an airline without prior warning to the passengers due to various reasons other than the ones beyond its direct control are known as canceled flights. Canceled flights also include irregularities where passengers are denied boarding due to any reason against their will. Refund rules on Canceled flights are guided by Government regulations under the regulatory acts passed by different parliaments and international councils. They are as follows.

1. i. Passengers are eligible to get full refunds of unused tickets forcanceled flights Under the LOT Polish Airlines Refund policy.
2. ii. Canceled flights are those that are canceled by airlines without prior knowledge of passengers due to reasons that could be avoided with proper and timely actions from the airlines.
3. iii. In the case of LOT Polish Airlines, rules regarding refunds on canceled flights are governed by strict EU regulations. Denied boarding and flight cancelations by passengers due to significant delays in departure also come under the purview of these regulations.
4. iv. Under these regulations, passengers are provided two types of refund options for canceled flights.
5. v. They may choose voucher refunds worth the same amount they paid which remain valid for two years from the dates of issuance.
6. vi. Or they may wait for full cash refunds along with compensations to be sent to the original forms of payment.
7. vii. The vouchers issued by LOT Polish Airlines in exchange forcanceled tickets can be used in the future for the purchase of new tickets. If such tickets are purchased at lower prices than the value of the vouchers, the difference amounts are refunded to the passengers in the form of new vouchers issued.
8. viii. The LOT Polish canceled flight tickets remain valid for up to one year from the date of purchase. So, passengers can take their time before returning their tickets to LOT Polish and claiming their refunds by submitting the filled-up Ticket Refund forms. They may also decide to select an alternative date or route for the journey.
9. ix. Refund requests are processed in order of receival. The usual time for voucher issuance is 14 days while the issuance of cash refunds might take longer.
10. x. The refund vouchers issued by LOT Polish Airlines remain valid for up to two years from the date of issuance.
11. xi. The vouchers are transferable. They can be gifted and used for purchasing tickets for others.

Ticket Refund on Passenger’s Request

Changes in passengers’ travel plans are far too common in the air travel industry often leading to flight cancelations. Sometimes, a change in date, time or route of flight is not enough and a passengeris left with no other option but to cancel hisreservation. So, when rebooking is not an option, passengers can submit filled-up cancelation and refund application forms online and wait for the refunds to be processed. The following terms and conditions may apply pertaining to the refunds in such cases.

1. xii. As per the LOT Polish Airlines Refund policy, the refund amount granted by LOT Polish Airlines depends on respective fare terms and conditions. Passengers can check the amount granted from the “Manage Booking” page of the official website.
2. xiii. The only form of refund LOT Polish offers against flight cancelations by passengers is a voucher.
3. xiv. The refund vouchers include the taxes and surcharges paid but don’t cover the ancillary costs.
4. xv. The refund vouchers are issued within 14 days of submitting the refund requests.

Ticket Refund Under 24-hour Cancelation Policy

Discussions have already been done in the previous section about the LOT Polish Airlines 24-hour cancelation policy. Under this policy, passengers can receive full cash refunds without any penalty if they cancel their tickets within 24 hours of purchasing. Three things are important here for ticket refunds,

1. i. Tickets must be canceled by passengers within 24 hours of purchase.
2. ii. The date of purchase should be at least 7 days or more from the date of departure.
3. iii. Passengers can get full cash refunds made to the original forms of payment.

How to get an online ticket refund from LOT Polish Airlines?

LOT Polish Airlines has a Ticket Refund application form which can be accessed from the LOT Polish official website. Passengers can fill up and submit this refund request form online right after canceling their flights from the Manage Booking section of the website or they may prefer to do it later within one year from the date of purchase of the ticket. Passengers can also request voucher refunds against canceled tickets by submitting this form. The step-by-step process is described below.

1. i. First, land on the homepage of the official LOT Polish Airlines website and check the right-hand side of the menu bar. Click on the Explore menu right below the select your country option. This would open a dropdown box with many submenu options grouped under five different columns.
2. ii. Take your mouse to the fourth column named Travel Information and click on the first option called “Canceled flights – how to rebook or refund a ticket?” This would open a page with the same name.
3. iii. Scroll down the page and find the last sub-heading, “Get a refund.” You’ll find a blue hyperlink called the “Ticket Refund” form. Click on the hyperlink.
4. iv. A new page with the heading, “Change or refund of reservation” would open up. There is a grey color box in the middle of the page that asks you to “choose a form type.” There are two options to select from – “Flight was canceled” and “Flight was not canceled."
5. v. The first option is applicable to those whose flights have been canceled without prior warning or who have been denied boarding by LOT Polish Airlines due to various reasons within or beyond the passengers’ control.
6. vi. The second option is applicable to those who want to cancel their LOT Polish reservations due to changes in plans or due to significant delays in departure by LOT Polish. Choose the option that applies to you by clicking on the round dot beside the option.
7. vii. The website would ask you again to choose between two options – “Date Change” and “Refund.” Select the latter.
8. viii. This would open the “Ticket Refund” form. Fill it up and don’t forget to accept the Terms and Conditions at the end of the form. Now, click on the Send button.

Once the refund application is submitted, your refund would be processed within the next 14 business days.