Updated March 20th, 2020
With so many flights cancelled, and passengers wanting to change their travel dates, many airlines have implemented new guidelines for changing your flight. Most are at least waiving the change fee, some are even waiving the difference in price compared to a future ticket for a set period of time. Below you can find flight change fees and refunds guidelines by airline for major U.S. carriers.
Delta, as well as every carrier listed below, all have a notice at the top of their updates page stating that they are dealing with passengers who are scheduled to fly in the next 72 hours only. If you will be traveling soon, but not in the next three days they would like you to wait or use My Trips online to cancel your flight yourself. You do not need to rebook right away.
Any Delta ticket expiring in March or April can now be used until Dec 31st 2020, and you can rebook at a later date (not right now while everything is crazy.)
If you don't take your flight your ticket number automatically becomes an unused eCredit within 24 hours. The credit will be applied when you book a flight in My Trips when selecting a trip that starts prior to Dec 31st 2020. If the new flight costs less than your original flight, you will receive a Delta travel voucher. If the new flight costs more, you will see that balance due.
Change fees - all travel departing in March or April and tickets purchased in March 2020 will not be assessed a change fee.
For flights departing after May 1st 2020 check back as the dates get closer and new developments arise.
Read more about flight change fees and refunds for Delta here.
Southwest has always taken great pride in their, "no change fees ever," policy.
Wanna Get Away fare - The only type of ticket that is not regularly fully refundable in cash or credit. Right now if you need to change your flight or cancel a Wanna Get Away fare you will get Southwest, "travel funds," that can be used toward a new ticket and have an expiration date of one year.
You can cancel as late as 10 minutes prior to your departure.
Read more here.
With American Airlines, as with Delta, you can cancel your ticket online and call when you're ready to rebook, you don't need to rebook immediately.
Change fees have been waived for tickets purchased before March 1st 2020, for travel through April 30th 2020 and if you booked your trip March 1st - March 31 2020 for travel through January 30th 2021.
If you don't take your flight, and couldn't get through to the reservation line to change it, American Airlines will honor the value of your ticket. Instructions on their site say to call when you are ready to rebook. When you rebook you will need your ticket number, and the confirmation to use the value of the ticket you didn't use.
Read more here.
If you're scheduled to travel March 11th, 2020 - April 30th, 2020 and want to change there is no fee.
If you are traveling to a country that has a travel ban, and you are unable to reschedule, United will honor the value of the ticket in the form of a travel credit to any destination within 12 months. If you do not use the credit within 12 months you will receive a cash refund.
Any new travel that you book in March 2020 can be changed with no fee for the next 12 months. Read more here.
Hawaiian airlines has specific waivers for flights that have been cancelled to specific destinations. With Australia closing its boarders they are the latest to be added to this list of special waivers. A list of these special waivers is on this page.
Hawaiian Airlines will not only waive the change fee but also waive the change in fare if the flight you are changing to costs more than your original ticket if you meet certain criteria. They are also offering new flight buying confidence allowing people who book new flights in March 2020 to take advantage of the change fee waiver. (Update: Previously they had offered fare cost waiver as well - stating that if the price of the ticket has gone up you won't need to pay the difference if you travel before December 31st, 2020. That wording has since been removed from the website.)
Read more here.
As with all of the airlines above, Virgin Atlantic has waived change fees, however they have more specific date guidelines and rules. You can see a full list here.
Virgin Atlantic also has specific waivers, and a form for people who are mid-trip and away from home. You can read more here.
We will update this page if there are any drastic changes with flight change fees and refunds for the above airlines. If you need information, and are having a hard time finding it, about a specific airline not listed above let us know in the comments below.
Forbes has put out a list of international airlines and their change fee waivers and policies regarding flights at this time here.
It has been nice to see nearly every airline offering to waive fees and even cost differences! It offers hope that in just a few weeks or months travel can return to normal. I think we are all looking forward to that.
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