Airlines that offer you a credit if the price of airfare drops
Purchasing airfare is often a guessing game. You never know for sure if you're getting the best deal or if the airline will launch a sale or offer a better price in the future.
If the fare drops after you book, you might assume you're out of luck. That's not necessarily true, though. Sometimes you can cash in on the savings even after you've booked your ticket.
Getting a lower fare within 24 hours of booking
The U.S. Department of Transportation requires a 24-hour free change, hold or penalty-free cancellation window for 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 paid and award tickets booked with miles.
If you purchase a ticket only to find out that it's on sale a few hours later, you can cancel the old ticket and receive a full refund. Then you can book an entirely 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, but it only applies to price changes within 24 hours of booking. However, if an airline offers a free 24-hour hold, it likely won't also offer the 24-hour cancellation window.
Ticket refund policies for the major US airlines
Once you get outside that 24-hour free cancellation window, you're subject to 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 a published price from a third-party site for at least $10 less than you paid (for the same flight) within 24 hours of booking. In this case, you can request a refund of the difference. However, it would make more sense to cancel your ticket within 24 hours (per DOT requirements) and rebook it yourself to save money.
After the 24-hour mark, you can still receive a credit if the fare drops depending on the fare type purchased because Alaska no longer charges change or cancelation fees for any fare 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 the issue date, but you can still travel up to 11 months later. You can also gift the travel credit to someone if you're not flying Alaska within that timeframe.
Additionally, flights booked solely with Alaska Airlines 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 a partner airline.
American Airlines
American Airlines does not charge change or cancellation fees on premium cabin, premium economy and main cabin fares. It does charge fees for basic economy fares and some travel originating outside of North and South America.
This means if you booked a flight that falls into the "no change or cancellation fee" category, you can call American to reprice your ticket at the less expensive fare.
For paid fares, the price difference will be given to you as a trip credit which you can use toward a future flight, expiring one year from the date 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. If you purchased a regular award, American will reprice your fare within the same booking reservation.
If you booked a Web Special award, which doesn't allow voluntary changes, you must cancel the reservation and then rebook with the reinstated miles. In my experience, miles return to the account they came from almost instantly.
Delta Air Lines
Depending on the fare type, you can have your ticket repriced within the same reservation if the ticket price decreases the day after you reserved.
For most tickets originating from the U.S., Canada, Europe, Africa and the Caribbean to anywhere in the world (excluding basic economy), there's no change fee. Basic economy flights cost between $99 and $199 to cancel, while flights originating outside of those fee-free regions incur a fee of up to $400 to cancel.
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, you'll have to do the math to see if paying a change fee is worth the price difference. For paid fares, the difference in the price paid will be given to you as an eCredit, which normally expires one year from the date the original flight was purchased. If you booked a flight in 2022, all eCredits expire Dec. 31, 2023. That is the "book by" date, allowing you to still travel in 2024.
For flights booked with Delta SkyMiles, as long as your flight is cancellation-eligible (same rules apply as above), you can reprice your flight. The difference in miles will be redeposited into your account with no fee.
For reservations booked as basic economy, you can still cancel your flight, 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 into your account when you cancel.
Frontier Airlines
Unlike many other airlines listed, Frontier Airlines doesn't offer an ongoing fare type that allows you to cancel for no fee.
Frontier's fee for canceling a flight is $99 for each direction of travel, so 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 as long as you do so within 90 days of receipt (although you can still book for a future date as long as the schedule allows). Flight credits are nontransferable.
If you purchase the "Works" bundle as an add-on when booking your flight, one of the perks is that your flight is 100% refundable. 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.
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 100K status holders automatically receive the Works bundle at no additional cost on every flight.
You can cancel any Frontier Airlines flight booked with miles, but there's a $75 redeposit fee for your miles to go back into your account. This fee is waived for Last Seat Award flights.
JetBlue
With the elimination of change and cancellation fees 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 some of the other airlines, can be used to book a flight for another passenger. (If you booked prior to March 8, 2023, your travel credits expire one year after the credit is issued, not from the original purchase date).
The same policy applies when using JetBlue TrueBlue points to book a flight, and since it doesn't offer Blue Basic fares for points reservations, all fares are fully refundable. The taxes and fees paid are returned as a travel credit (almost instantly) but cannot be used in combination with reservations booked with points — leaving 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 on the same day you make the reservation. Rather than offering you a refund of the fare difference, the airline provides a $50 credit toward future travel on JetBlue. Note the fare price must be at least $5 less to qualify.
Southwest Airlines
Southwest makes it incredibly easy for you to see if your flight has gone down in price. Plus, since they have no change or cancellation fees, you can always change your flight to the exact same one you originally booked. You can do this easily online.
If you already purchased Early Bird Check-In, that benefit will stay intact if you reprice your flight as well.
If you paid for the fare with dollars, you'll end up with a credit for the difference in fare price, which you can use toward a future flight. Plus, flight credits no longer expire.
If you paid with Rapid Rewards points and you reprice the fare, you'll receive the point difference back into 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.
Spirit Airlines
Spirit Airlines also allows free flight cancellations if you cancel the flight at least 60 days before departure. If you see your flight price has dropped two months out, you can cancel and rebook to get back the exact fare difference.
For flights within the 60-day window, there's an associated fee, depending on when the flight is canceled. If the price drops when a fee is required, determine whether or not the price difference makes up for the fee amount.
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 points, there's always the possibility that the flight has also 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 has also eliminated change fees for most fare types (except basic economy tickets), which helps if a fare goes down. 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.
There are also tales of a little-known policy that may allow for a price adjustment within 30 days of purchase, sometimes with a $50 fee attached. So, it doesn't hurt to ask United if the above method doesn't work for you and you've booked your flight within the last month.
Redeposit fees are also waived for award travel with United for the same eligible fare type and route as paid fares. If your award booking goes down in price, you can cancel your award reservation without a fee and rebook at the lower price.
Other ways to get a refund after a flight price drop
There are some other ways to get a refund if the cost of your flight decreases after booking, and these will generally work across all carriers, depending on the circumstances.
Pay the change fee
Although most airlines got rid of their change fees, depending on your route and fare bucket, there might be 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 has changed, and you can rebook your ticket for a lower price, cancel the original reservation at no cost if or when you are eligible and receive a refund.
Book via a program that guarantees the price in case it drops
There are a small but increasing number of ways to book your airline tickets that offer a price protection guarantee in certain cases. Google Flights is experimenting with this feature, and the Capital One travel booking site sometimes offers built-in protections as well.
Bottom line
Air travel almost always involves 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. Other times, if you're unlucky or 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.
Related reading:
- Best airline credit cards
- How to change or cancel a JetBlue flight
- These are the best credit cards for booking airfare
- Understanding airlines' 24-hour hold and cancellation policies
- Delta extends all tickets and vouchers through 2023 in an industry-leading move
- How to change or cancel a Delta Air Lines flight
- JetBlue makes no-notice devaluation to travel credits
Caroline Tanner contributed reporting.