Airline Change & Cancellation Policies due to COVID-19 - MileValue

I hope all of you and your loved ones are coping during this trying time. Whether you're hunkering down at home with work or study, or are still needed in public as a healthcare professional or otherwise essential employee, I wish you all good health and peace of mind.

Below I will go into detail on the current policies for the top five US airlines (defined by passengers carried).

Table of Contents

To keep call volume down, change or cancel your flight online if possible. You may to see within your reservation on the appopriate website if your flight is eligible for changes/cancellations. Find your...

If you aren't given the option to change it online, and are traveling within the next 72 hours, then go ahead and call.

Regarding Travel Vouchers in Place of Actual Refunds

Unfortunately various airlines right now, in particular United, are pushing travel vouchers instead of outright refunds for flights cancelled by the airlines themselves, not customers. By travel voucher I mean a credit to be used for a future flight.

In other words, United wants a year interest-free loan.

If this happens to you, know that you have the right to an actual refund if a travel voucher is not what you want. If they will not process a refund, don't accept the voucher as that waives your right to the refund. Make sure you quote the Department of Transportation's latest statement enforcing that airlines owe you a refund if your flight was cancelled. If that still doesn't work, hang and call again to see if a different rep will handle things differently. If that still fails, try getting your credit card issuer to go to bat for you by disputing the charge with them. To be clear, you will want to dispute the charge (as you are not receiving what you paid for), not report fraudulent activity.

American Airlines

t
• Customer Service Number: 800-433-7300
t
• AAdvantage Customer Service Number: 800-882-8880

Note that the waived change fees only apply to one change per trip, and fare differences may apply. Check AA's Travel Alerts page for more specifics on your destination, as they vary by country.

As long as they fall under the same waivers listed above, award flights are being refunded in the form of miles back to your account and AA is not charging redeposit fees.

Delta

t
• Customer Service Number: 800-221-1212
t
• SkyMiles Customer Service Number: 800-323-2323

All travel booked between March 1 and May 31 can be changed for free for up to a year after purchase.

For all flights booked prior to March 1, all change fees are waived for all travel, domestic and international, with departure dates through June 30, 2020. No fare difference will apply if the new flight departs by May 31, 2020. Travel must be complete by May 31, 2022

The same policies apply to award flights. You will get your miles refunded and redeposit fees waived.

United

t
• Customer Service Number: 800-864-8331
t
• MileagePlus Customer Service Number: 800-421-4655

United is allowing free changes for 12 months on all flights booked until April 30, 2020.

There are no change fees for all tickets issued on or before March 2 - domestic or international - with original travel dates of March 3 through May 31. Your new flight must depart within 24 months of when your original ticket was booked. If your flight departs June 1 to December 31, 2020, you can also change it for free as long as you make the change by April 30, 2020.

There are more specific waivers for flights to South Korea, Hong Kong, China, and Italy.

If you don't know when you want to rebook you can cancel your flight and rebook later with change fees waived (as long as the flight was booked March 2 or before). You must travel within 24 months of when the travel voucher is issued.

The same travel waivers apply to award flights. Until around March 27, United was charging redeposit fees to put the miles back in your account. Thankfully they no longer are doing so.

Southwest

t
• Southwest Customer Service: 800-435-9792
t
• Rapid Rewards Customer Service: 800-248-4377

Southwest has never charged change nor cancellations fees. Change your Southwest flight here.

From their website: " If a Customer's plans change, or they decide they no longer want to travel, the funds used to pay for their flight can be applied to future travel - as long as they cancel their flight at least 10 minutes prior to the scheduled departure. The funds are valid for future travel up to one year from the original purchase date and must be used by the individual named on the ticket ".

That policy is for "Wanna Get Away Fares", which are the cheapest. If you purchased an Anytime or Business Select Fare, those are fully refundable in the form of cash or a statement credit on your credit card.

Due to COVID-19, Southwest is extending the validity of travel funds depending on when your ticket was purchased:

t
• Travel funds that expire between March 1 - June 30, 2020, will now expire June 30, 2021.
t
• Travel funds created because you cancel a flight between March 1 - June 30, 2020, will expire June 30, 2021.

And if your travel dates are before April 30, then you can move your flight up to 60 days from the original travel date and not pay any difference in fare.

No change or cancellation fees, nor mileage redeposit fees. Taxes and fees are being refunded as well.

Alaska

t
• Alaska Customer Service: 800-654-5669
t
• Mileage Plan Customer Service: 800-654-5669

For tickets purchased on/before February 26, 2020:

t
• If you purchase(d) a Saver fare for travel through May 31, 2020, you can cancel your trip without a fee and get credit for future travel, to be used within a year of ticket issuance.
t
• If you purchased a nonrefundable First Class, main, or award ticket for travel through May 31, 2020, you may:
  t
  • Change your trip without a fee. Travel must be completed by February 28, 2021. Fare difference may apply.
  t
  • Cancel your trip without a fee and get credit for future travel, to be used within a year of ticket issuance.

For tickets purchased on/before February 27 to May 31,2020:

t
• If you purchased a Saver fare, you may cancel your trip without a fee and get credit for future travel, to be used within a year of ticket issuance.
t
• If you purchased a nonrefundable First Class, main, or award ticket, you may:
  t
  • Change your trip without a fee. Travel must be completed by February 28, 2021. Fare difference may apply.
  t
  • Cancel your trip without a fee and get credit for future travel, to be used within a year of ticket issuance.

The policy outlined above applies to award travel as well. No redeposit fees.

I'm Flying A Different Airline

Check out Tiffany at One Mile at a Time 's compilation of change and cancellation policies for most airlines and hotels, as well as a list of travel advisories for every country.

What's Up with Me

There's been radio silence content-wise on my end as I spent last week scrambling to first makes sense of the situation and then get out of Argentina. For those unaware, I spend a good portion of each year in Buenos Aires.

On Wednesday the Argentine government announced a mandatory 14-day quarantine for those arriving from the United States (as well as a list of other infected countries). Then the President signed a decree cancelling all flights that originate in the United States, without a clear message on when exactly flights would stop. It doesn't make sense for planes to fly empty one way, so I knew what this ultimately would mean. If I wanted to get back to the US for an essential medical treatment I have coming up in the beginning of April, I needed to hightail it out of there before I lost the option. On Friday we learned that flights would stop as of today, Tuesday, March 17.

I left Friday, March 13 on a United redeye via Houston that delivered me to Charleston, SC, where my parents live.

Bottom Line

These policies will continue to change over the coming days and weeks as the situation develops, particularly as the overwhelming advice now is to avoid non-essential travel.

My advice to you in regards to your own travel plans is to sit tight if your trip is not in the immediate future, for two reasons:

t
1. Most importantly, we need to help one another by giving priority to those who have imminent travel that needs to be addressed. Phone lines are incredibly overwhelmed. Airlines are asking that if you are not traveling within the next 72 hours, to please hold off on calling.
t
2. These policies may get more generous (in regards to outright refunds) as the situation develops, especially if the airlines end up getting any sort of bailout package. That may be wishful thinking, but hey, I'm an optimist.

I will update this post periodically for the time being, as airlines are changing their policies to reflect progression of the disease and subsequent government action. Always refer to your airline of travel for the most up to date info.

Feel free to comment below if you see something wrong or that needs to be updated. I could use your help.