If you’re looking for a flight (say, for your next long-distance trip), you’ll want to know the ins-and-outs of the airline’s cancellation policy should you need to change or cancel after you’ve purchased your ticket.
While airlines can be strict, there’s one tip you may have overlooked: The Department of Transportation requires airlines to “hold a reservation at the quoted fare for 24 hours without payment or allow a reservation to be cancelled within 24 hours without penalty,” as long as it’s at least seven days in advance of the flight date. That includes domestic and international carriers, if you’re flying to or from the U.S.
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That said, you’ll want to watch out for airline trickery. That may include selecting “hold” instead of “purchase” for some airlines so you’re not stuck with a ticket you thought you could return—they’re technically only required to hold the price for 24 hours, or allow cancellation within 24 hours, not both.
Sometimes, though, you may be granted longer than a day to cancel for free, depending on where you purchase the ticket (for example, if you buy your ticket on a Friday, you might get the entire weekend to mull over your decision and be allowed to cancel on Monday). If you want the guaranteed 24-hour cancellation, you need to book through the airline directly.
Business Insider notes that Southwest Airlines does not charge for rebooking flights, which could make it attractive for people who might need to switch their flight. One other thing worth mentioning about Southwest: Its flights won’t appear on search engines like Priceline or on Google Flights, so you should also search directly on its site for deals. Delta and JetBlue are also restricting the third party sites that display its flights.
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