What to do if the Airline Changes or Cancels your Flight
If you’ve traveled more than 5 times, you’ve probably had a flight change or a full on cancellation. This can be very frustrating, especially if you have your hotel, transportation, or other time sensitive accommodations booked. In the worst instances, your flight may be canceled entirely. The airline may be able to fly you on a different day, or they may be canceling the entire route.
So, what can you do if it happens to you? We’re about to break down your options depending on the situation.
It might not be a bad thing!
When an airline makes a significant change to your flight you have a few options (keep in mind “significant” varies by airline). You have the right to:
a full refund
ask to be put on a different flight
without a change fee
without having to pay more if the new flight is more expensive.
These are great options because if you no longer want to take the trip, wahoo! You can get a cash refund! If you did want to continue with the trip, you can get a better flight time free of charge.
If the airline cancels your flight and you do not want to rebook:
If the airline cancels your flight, you’re owed a cash refund. It is federal law. “A passenger is entitled to a refund if the airline cancelled a flight, regardless of the reason, and the passenger chooses not to be rebooked on a new flight on that airline.”
Airlines may try to hide the refund option and push you to accept a voucher. Know your rights and be proactive. Even basic economy tickets- which are nonrefundable if you elect to cancel voluntarily- are eligible for cash refund if the airline cancels your flight.
If the airline is stonewalling on a refund and offering a cash voucher instead, there are 3 options you can look at:
Hang up and call again. Agents often have discretion about who gets refunds. Often you’ll have better luck with a different agent. Be friendly though- it isn’t the agent’s fault the flight was cancelled.
You can file a complaint with the Department of Transportation.
Finally, you can dispute the charge with your credit card. Most banks and companies guarantee that if you paid for something and didn’t receive it, you can dispute the charge and be reimbursed by the credit card.
If the airline makes a significant change to your itinerary:
Most airlines have policies that if they change your itinerary in a siginificant way after booking, they’ll work with you to get on the next best flight for your schedule.
Airlines have different definitions of significant:
United - 30 minute change
Delta - 60 minute change
American - 60 minute change
This also works if your connection time shrinks to below the airport or airline’s stated minimum connection time. For example, if you only have a 15 minute layover in Atlanta, you will never make your next flight.
If this is the case, the first thing you should do is go online to find other available flight times from that airline and choose the best option for your schedule.
Don’t stress if the fare is higher on this new flight - if there is an open seat, the airline will likely move you to that flight for free.
Once you’ve decided on a new flight, call the airline to get your itinerary switched over.
If the change is significant enough and there are no other flights that work with your schedule, you do have the option to request a cash refund - even if it’s a basic economy fare). For this, the “significant change” varies again to:
United - 2 hours
Delta - 90 minutes
American - 4 hours
If the airline cancels your original flight and moves you to another flight:
Perhaps you were scheduled to fly on Monday, but the airline has canceled that flight and put you on a Tuesday flight. Or maybe you were going to fly from Portland to Philadelphia, but the airline stopped operating that route, so instead they fly you from Portland to Seattle to Philadelphia. In this case, the solution is similar to the above. You can accept the new flight, or check out your options and then call the airline and ask to be moved to a flight that works better with your schedule.
Again, if this change is more than the minimum times stated above, you also have the option to get a refund (even with a normally non-refundable basic economy fare), but that may mean you won’t be able to take your trip at all.
If the airline cancels your flight because they are no longer operating that route:
It gets a little tricky here, but bare with me.
If it is a major airline that operates a hub-and-spoke model or has several codeshare partners (example: Oneworld, SkyTeam, Star Alliance, etc.)
If they cancel the direct route (for example New York to Paris), they might fly you New York to London, and put you on a European partner to connect the final leg.
However, many budget airlines don’t have partner networks and operate mostly on a point-to-point model. So if they cancel a specific route, it is probably likely they cannot reroute you. The most likely outcome is they will cancel your flight and issue you a refund.
An exception to this is if you’re willing to be re-accommodated on a different point-to-point route. For example, if Norwegian canceled their Boston to Rome route, they may be able to rebook you on their Boston to London flight or New York to Rome route, but you’d be responsible for getting yourself to Rome or New York depending on the rebook.
If the airline cancels your flight because they have gone out of business:
This doesn’t happen often, but it has happened a few times (most notably probably is WOW Air. In this case, it is very unlikely you’ll get a refund from the airline.
If this happens, this is a great article from Scott’s Cheap flights to help you.
At the end of the day, I hope your flight is never cancelled or changed and you only have smooth flights and travel days. However, if and when something goes awry, you see you have many options at your disposal. Keep your cool, stay kind, and get to work :)