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Airlines love charging fees, but the worst is when you need to change or cancel your reservation. These fees can end up eating up the entire cost of your ticket to make the whole process pretty worthless. It's not all bad news, though: some airlines have better policies than others. Let's break down which are the best and which are the worst.
Let's start with a quick rundown of all the different policies for canceling and changing flights. For our purposes, we'll just take a look at non-refundable tickets. Most airlines have more expensive tickets or loyalty programs that get rid of these fees, so if you tend to change your flights around often, those are worth a look. Every airline has their own name and class for these ticket types, but they're usually fully refundable without a fee, at the cost of a higher entry price.
For the rest of us, it's about the standard non-refundable ticket you buy when you go through a normal checkout process. On top of cancellations and complete itinerary changes, most airlines also offer smaller fees for "same day changes", when you miss a flight or want to catch an earlier flight on the same day. Pretty much every airline also offers a 24-hour full refund window for tickets if you change your mind right after purchasing them (or you just find a better deal).
In most cases, airlines will also refund non-refundable tickets in extreme circumstances, including a death in family (you'll need a death certificate), jury duty, or for military activation. Similarly, if the airline itself changes the itinerary, you can get a full refund that way as well, although that's out of your control. But, if you're lucky, they'll screw something up and give you an easy out.
With that in mind, here's a breakdown of all the major US airlines with their policies and fees (click the magnifying glass to zoom in):
The Best
As far as the best policies for changing flights goes, there is one very clear winner: Southwest. They don't charge anything to change your flight to a different day or an entirely different city altogether. Of course, they will charge you the difference if your new flight costs more, but there aren't any other extra fees.
Next to Southwest is Alaska, which has an okay, but not as awesome as Southwest plan. If you change your itinerary over 60 days in advance of your flight, it's free. However, once you pass the 60 day threshold, it'll cost you $125. Alaska's sounds great on paper, but we'd venture a guess that most flight changes and cancellations come within that 60 day window. Alaska's $25 same-day change is also one of the better deals if you happen to miss your flight or just want to return home a little early.
The Worst
There's a close battle for the worst amongst the bunch, with Air Canada, American Airlines, Delta, Hawaiian, United, and US Airways all charging a whopping $200 to cancel a ticket or change your itinerary. These airlines also have the worst same day change policies, charging between $50-$75 to change your flight to another on the same day. Basically, if you're unsure about a flight, don't go with any of these airlines (or pay a little extra for whatever their refundable tier of tickets is).
The Rest
Slightly below the worst is a few middling airlines, though when you also factor in the average ticket cost you'll probably find that changing your flight on any of these airlines is barely worth it. Frontier charges $75, but considering they're also typically one of the "cheapest" airlines, that means that'll be a good chunk of your ticket. More importantly, if you also paid for a checked bag or seat assignment, those fees are non-refundable in any way, so they won't get applied to another flight.
Spirit, JetBlue, and Allegiant all have similar policies and the same downfalls. Their ticket prices are so low that you'll likely only get $50-$100 back after you pay the $75-$120 fee. In the case of JetBlue, it's also a confusing mess that's dependent on how much you paid for the ticket to begin with. As the ticket price goes up, so does the cost of changing it, eventually topping out at a $150 charge for any ticket over $150.
Photo by Freepik.
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