Airlines that offer you a credit if the price of airfare drops
Editor’s note: This is a recurring post, regularly updated with new information and offers. Purchasing airfare is often a guessing game. You may not know if you’re getting the best deal or if the airline will reduce prices in the future. If the fare drops after you book, you might assume you’re out of luck …
Editor’s note: This is a recurring post, regularly updated with new information and offers.
Purchasing airfare is often a guessing game. You may not know if you’re getting the best deal or if the airline will reduce prices in the future.
If the fare drops after you book, you might assume you’re out of luck and have missed your chance to save. That’s not always the case, though.
Here’s how to save retroactively after booking your ticket.
Getting a lower fare within 24 hours of booking
The U.S. Department of Transportation requires airlines to allow travelers the chance to cancel flights for free within the initial 24 hours of booking or place a 24-hour hold without payment — not both. You should check individual airline policies to confirm which of the two they offer.
This hold or penalty-free cancellation window applies to flights that originate or end in the U.S. on any airline as long as the booking was made at least seven days before departure. This rule applies to tickets paid for with cash and award tickets booked with miles or points.
If you purchase a ticket and find it’s on sale a few hours later, you can cancel the old ticket and receive a full refund before booking a new reservation at the lower price.
This is the easiest way to lock in a lower price on an already-booked ticket unless the airline will reprice it for you. However, it only applies to price changes within 24 hours of booking. It’s important to note that if an airline offers a free 24-hour hold, it likely won’t also offer the 24-hour cancellation window.
Ticket refund policies for major US airlines
Outside the 24-hour free cancellation window, you’re subject to varying individual airline policies.
Here’s how major U.S. airlines handle price drops on existing tickets.
Alaska Airlines
Alaska offers a limited price guarantee for tickets purchased online. If you find the same flight from another airline or third-party site for at least $10 less than you paid within 24 hours of booking, you can request a refund of the difference. However, canceling your ticket within 24 hours (per DOT requirements) and rebooking it yourself might sometimes make more sense and be more efficient.
After 24 hours, you can still receive a credit if the fare drops, depending on the fare type purchased; Alaska no longer charges change or cancellation fees for any fares except for saver fares.
If you book one of the more flexible fare classes and the price decreases, you can cancel and receive a travel credit to rebook.
Alaska’s travel credits expire one year from issuance, so as long as you book within that year, you can book your travel for any time up to 11 months after the expiration date.
Additionally, flights booked solely with Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan miles do not incur a fee if canceled. So, if your flight goes down in price, you can always cancel and rebook. However, partner award fees are nonrefundable if you’re using your miles to book with a partner airline via Alaska Airlines.
American Airlines
American Airlines does not charge change or cancellation fees on business-class, first-class, premium economy or Main Cabin fares. Change fees apply for basic economy fares and some travel originating outside of North and South America.
If you booked a flight without a change or cancellation fee, you can call American to reprice your ticket for a less expensive fare.
For cash fares, any price difference will be awarded as a trip credit for future flights within one year of issuance. If you purchased a fully refundable fare, you can cancel your flight, receive a full refund to your original form of payment and then rebook at the lower price.
If you booked your flight with AAdvantage miles, you can always get the lower fare price since basic economy fares aren’t available when using miles. However, the type of award booked will determine the process to go through. American will reprice your fare within the same booking reservation if you purchased a regular award.
Delta Air Lines
Depending on the fare type, you can reprice your ticket within the same reservation if the ticket price decreases the day after you reserve.
There’s no change fee for most tickets originating in the U.S. and Canada, excluding basic economy tickets. Canceling basic economy flights costs between $99 and $199; nonrefundable flights originating outside fee-free regions — including those from Europe, Africa and the Caribbean — incur a fee of up to $400.
If your flight is eligible for a free change or cancellation, you can call Delta to reprice the ticket. For flights that incur a fee, do the math to determine if paying a change fee is worth the price difference. For cash fares, the difference in the price will be given to you as an eCredit, which normally expires one year from the date the original flight was purchased.
For flights booked with Delta SkyMiles, as long as your flight is cancellation-eligible (the same rules apply as above), you can reprice your flight. The difference in miles will be redeposited in your account with no fee.
You can still cancel your flight for basic economy reservations but with an associated fee in miles. For those flights, Delta will deduct between 9,900 and 19,900 miles from the amount it redeposits in your account when you cancel.
Frontier Airlines
Frontier Airlines charges change fees based on how close the departure date is for Basic and Standard fares — $49 for changes made within seven to 59 days and $99 for changes within six days. Changes made 60 days or more in advance are free.
Economy, Premium and Business bundles and Bizfares are 100% refundable, regardless of departure date. This means if your flight drops in price, you can cancel and receive a full refund — including the price of the bundle — as a flight credit.
If you find that the price decreased more than the cost to cancel, you can always cancel. You’ll receive a flight credit for the amount paid minus the cancellation fee. You can then use the flight credit to rebook at a lower price if you do so within 90 days of receipt (though you can still book for a future date as long as the schedule allows). Flight credits are nontransferable.
You can then use that credit to book the same flight at a lesser value, and the remaining value expires one year from the issue date. Frontier’s Elite Diamond status holders automatically receive a bundle at no additional cost on every flight.
You can cancel any Frontier Airlines flight booked with Frontier Miles, but there’s a $75 redeposit fee for the miles to be redeposited in your account. This fee is waived for Frontier Elite members and Last Seat Award flights.
JetBlue
With change and cancellation fees eliminated on most fares except Blue Basic fares, repricing your JetBlue flight for less is possible.
As long as you purchase an eligible fare, you can cancel your flight for no fee and rebook with the travel credit you receive. Credits are valid for one year from when the flight was purchased, and unlike with some of the other airlines, you can use them to book a flight for another passenger.
The same policy applies when using JetBlue TrueBlue points to book a flight; since JetBlue doesn’t offer Blue Basic fares for points reservations, all fares are fully refundable. The taxes and fees paid will come back to you as a travel credit (almost instantly), but you cannot use travel credits in combination with reservations booked with points. This leaves you with credits to use for a future reservation.
JetBlue also offers a Best Fare Guarantee against finding a lower fare on a third-party website, though you must find the lower fare the same day you make the reservation. Rather than offering a refund of the fare difference, JetBlue provides a $50 credit toward future travel on JetBlue. The fare price must be at least $5 less to qualify.
Southwest Airlines
Southwest makes it incredibly easy to see if your flight has decreased in price. With no change fees, you can easily change your flight to the same one you originally booked online.
If you already purchased EarlyBird Check-In, that benefit will stay intact if you reprice your flight as well.
If you paid for the fare with dollars, you’ll get a credit for the difference in fare price, which you can use toward a future flight. Flight credits do not expire.
If you paid with Rapid Rewards points and repriced the fare, you’ll receive the points difference back in your account.
The process can be complicated if you have a Companion Pass and have a travel companion’s reservation attached to yours. In this case, you’ll need to cancel your companion, reprice the fare and then add your companion back on.
With the airline’s four fare types, you can still cancel all flights without fees at least 10 minutes before departure, but the type of refund you receive depends on fare type:
- Wanna Get Away fares: If you originally booked a cash fare, you’ll get a flight credit. If you redeemed points for an award ticket, the points will be redeposited back to the Rapid Rewards account they were originally taken from. You can opt to get the taxes and fees on your award ticket back as a flight credit or a method-of-payment refund.
- Wanna Get Away Plus fares: If you originally booked a cash fare, you’ll get a transferable flight credit. If you redeemed points for an award ticket, the points will be redeposited back to the Rapid Rewards account they were originally taken from. You can opt to get the taxes and fees on your award ticket back as a transferable flight credit or a method-of-payment refund.
- Anytime and Business Select fares: You can receive the fare back as a method-of-payment refund or accept a flight credit.
If you cancel Anytime and Business Select fares within 10 minutes of departure, you’ll get a transferable flight credit; any points you redeemed will be redeposited.
Flight credits never expire, so there’s little risk in having some flight credits in your account if you expect to fly Southwest in the future.
Spirit Airlines
As of Feb. 5, Spirit reintroduced change and cancellation fees for unbundled Go Travel Option bookings. However, bundled fares like Go Big, Go Comfy and Go Savvy remain exempt from these fees.
Travelers will be offered a travel credit for cancellations made within 24 hours of booking.
When canceling and rebooking, you’ll receive a reservation credit for the difference in fare, valid for trips booked within 90 days of issuance on any flight available in the system. However, you can always apply credits to bag and seat fees. So, if you don’t plan to use the credit for another flight, you can apply it to one of Spirit’s many extra fees.
If you booked with Spirit Airlines’ Free Spirit points, the flight price may also have decreased. However, the cost to cancel an award ticket is $110, so you might not find the fee worth the savings.
United Airlines
Like most other major airlines, United also eliminated change fees for most fare types (except basic economy tickets), which helps if a fare decreases. This includes most economy and premium-cabin tickets for travel within the U.S. (which includes Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands), between the U.S. and Mexico or the Caribbean, and for international travel that originates in the U.S. However, for basic economy tickets, there’s no option to change or cancel your ticket.
United usually allows you to change your flights online, where the amount of credit you’ll receive is clearly displayed. However, the system often does not allow you to modify the trip to the exact same flight and fare online, even if the price has dropped. To take advantage of fare fluctuations, you may need to change to a different flight that day to get a future flight credit. And then, of course, you could theoretically switch back to your original flight or fare if the price is right.
Some travelers have reported success with a price adjustment within 30 days of purchase, sometimes with a $50 fee attached. It doesn’t hurt to ask, though this isn’t an official policy.
Redeposit fees are also waived for award travel with United for the same eligible fare type and route as cash fares. If the price of your award booking goes down, you can cancel it without a fee and rebook at a lower price.
Other ways to get a refund after a flight price drop
There are other ways to get a refund if the cost of your flight decreases after booking, and depending on the circumstances, these will generally work across all carriers.
Pay the change fee
Although most airlines eliminated change fees, depending on your route and fare bucket, you might have to pay a high fee to cancel your flight. If your flight doesn’t qualify for free cancellation and the price difference exceeds the change fee, it could be worth making the change and eating the fee.
Get a cancellation fee waiver and rebook
You might also be entitled to a free cancellation and a refund if your fare doesn’t already qualify for free cancellation. The most common situation is when there’s a significant change to the flight’s schedule. If your flight’s schedule changes and you can rebook your ticket for a lower price, cancel the original reservation at no cost if or when you are eligible; you will receive a refund.
Book via a program that guarantees the price in case it drops
There’s a small but increasing number of ways to book airline tickets that offer a price protection guarantee in certain cases. Google Flights offers a price guarantee on select itineraries to and from the U.S. On these bookings, the airline will refund the difference up to $500 if the price drops — but only if the price difference is more than $5.
The Capital One Travel booking site has also expanded its price protection features, offering refunds for select bookings if prices drop.
Bottom line
Air travel almost always utilizes dynamic pricing based on supply and demand. One person may pay $200 for an economy seat, while the person in the next seat has paid three times that amount.
Sometimes, you’re stuck with what you paid. In other instances — if you’re unlucky or you mistimed the purchase of your ticket and see a significant price drop — you may be able to get some of your money (or miles) back.
This all depends on the airline and timeline.
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