Last Updated on January 7, 2021
#4 – Fees for changing your plane ticket
The standard rule for nonrefundable tickets is almost universal and it tells you that you won’t get your money back. But there are alternatives and you can apply the dollar value of a canceled ticket toward the purchase of another ticket for a future trip usually within a year.
Big airlines don’t share the same policies, and the fees we are about to look at are usually applied to low-cost general/standard cabin fees. More expensive fares come with fewer limitations, but as far as North America is concerned, the Southwest refund policy is without a doubt the best fee policy available.
Southwest is the only airline in the U.S that offers this feature and the airline manages to be one of the best ranked in the country since it also offers two free checked bags.
∙American, United, and Delta, known as the “Big Three” have a similar way to deal with refunds and fees. Most of the nonrefundable fares are $200 for travel within the country and for international trips, it can go from $200 to $750.
∙Air Canada charges $50 for changes if you do 60 (or more) before your departure; within 60 days, they charge $100, and for a same-day airport change the fee goes up to $150.
∙If you travel with Alaska, they will charge a $125 charge fee.
∙Allegiant will charge you per segment, and you will have to pay $75 for each segment or double that amount for a round-trip.
∙Frontier won’t charge you anything as long as you make your changes within 60 days in advance or more. After that, they will charge you $79 for 14 days in advance, or $119 if you do it even closer to the departure date.
∙Hawaiian changes the fees depending on your destination. Within North America, they will charge you $200. On international flights, they will charge something between $50 and $300. And if you are flying within the islands of Hawaii they will only charge you $30.
∙JetBlue charges $75 if you purchase a cheap ticket of $100 or less. Then the prices will increase in proportion to the costs of your ticket, but the maximum fee is $200 for a ticket of $200 or more.
∙Spirit Airlines will allow you to retain value until a week before your trip for $90 online, or $100 by phone.
∙WestJet charges $25 on domestic flights (U.S) if you do it more than 60 days before departure; after that, the price goes up to $85. European routes and flights have higher prices.
