Top US Airlines to Cancel (or Change) Your Booking
Airlines love to charge you, but the worst is when you need to change or cancel your booking. These fees can end up eating up the entire cost of your ticket, rendering the entire process useless. However, this is not all bad news: some airlines have better policies than others. Let’s figure out which is better and which is worse.
Let’s start with a quick rundown of all the different flight cancellation and change policies. For our purposes, we’ll just consider non-refundable tickets. Most airlines have more expensive tickets or loyalty programs that eliminate these fees, so if you tend to change flights frequently, they are worth looking into. Each airline has its own name and class for these types of tickets, but they are usually fully refundable without commission due to the higher entry price.
For the rest of us, this is a standard non-refundable ticket that you buy on regular checkout. In addition to cancellations and full itinerary changes, most airlines also offer lower “same day change” fees when you miss your flight or want to catch an earlier flight on the same day. Virtually every airline also offers a 24-hour full refund period for tickets if you change your mind right after purchasing them (or simply find a better deal ).
In most cases, airlines also refund non-refundable tickets for emergencies, including family death (you will need a death certificate), jury or military service. Likewise, if the airline itself changes the route, you can also receive a full refund this way , although this is out of your control. But, if you’re lucky, they’ll screw something up and give you an easy way out.
With that in mind, here is a breakdown of all of the major US airlines with their policies and fees (click the magnifying glass to enlarge):
Best
When it comes to the best flight change policy, there is one clear winner: Southwest . They charge nothing for transferring your flight to another day or a completely different city. Of course, they will charge you the difference if your new flight costs more, but there are no other additional charges.
Near the Southwest is Alaska , which has a nice, but not as cool plan as the Southwest plan. If you change your itinerary more than 60 days before departure, it’s free. However, once you pass the 60-day threshold, it will cost you $ 125. Alaska sounds great on paper, but we’d venture to assume that most of the flight changes and cancellations occur during this 60-day window. A $ 25 same-day change to Alaska is also one of the best deals if you happen to miss your flight or just want to get home a little earlier.
The worst
Among them, there is a fierce battle for the worst: Air Canada , American Airlines , Delta , Hawaiian , United and US Airways are charging a whopping $ 200 for ticket cancellations or re-routing. These airlines also have the worst same day flight change rules, charging between $ 50 and $ 75 to change flights on the same day. Basically, if you are unsure of the correct flight, do not fly with any of these airlines (or pay a little more for a refundable level of tickets).
Rest
Slightly below the worst – a few mid-range airlines, although when you consider the average cost of a ticket, you will likely find that changing flights on any of these airlines is hardly worth it. The Frontier charges $ 75, but considering that they tend to be one of the “cheapest” airlines, that means that will be a sizable chunk of your ticket. More importantly, if you also paid for checked baggage or seat assignment, these fees are in no way refundable, so they will not be applied to another flight.
Spirit , JetBlue, and Allegiant have the same policies and the same disadvantages. Their ticket prices are so low that you will most likely only get $ 50-100 back after paying the $ 75-120 fee. In the case of JetBlue, it’s also a confusing mess, depending on how much you originally paid for your ticket. As the price of a ticket rises, so does the cost of changing it, eventually exceeding the $ 150 fee for any ticket over $ 150.