I have recently become obsessed with finding cheap flights to literally anywhere but you never know 100% whether you’ll actually be able to commit when you see an insane deal!
That’s where the 24-hour rule can help!
The 24-Hour Rule
If your flight reservation meets some minimal requirements, you can, without penalty cancel your booked reservation within 24 hours. So, let’s say you spot an AMAZING fare to Jakarta and would love to go, but aren’t sure you’ll be able to get those specific days off- No problem! Book the flight to capture the amazing rate and ask your boss ASAP if you can take a little trip out East. If your boss says yes, sweet, you just scored yourself a great fare to a grand adventure. Of course, if the answer is no, you can just get a full refund.
This rule is a courtesy of the US Department of Transportation who introduced the legislation in 2012. A copy of guidance for the rule can be found here: Guidance on the 24-hour Reservation Requirement A webpage explaining the rule in plain English can be found here: Refunds for Airline Travel Consumers
The exact text of the rule is “Allowing reservations to be held at the quoted fare without payment, or cancelled without penalty, for at least twenty-four hours after the reservation is made if the reservation is made one week or more prior to a flight’s departure;” and it can be found here, it is a PDF and a part of a government document, the entirety of which is available here.
Limitations
Basically, if you book a flight with an airline- any airline- and you cancel within 24 hours, you’ll be able to get a refund. This applies only to airline with whom you actually book the trip and not with travel agencies and not with airlines who opt to let you do a 24-hour price hold instead of the 24-hour cancellation. A note on that one: All the ones in the table below offer the cancellation and refund rather* than a price-hold. I wonder why that is? If you’re in the industry, let me know in the comments!
This also only applies to flights that leave or arrive in the US. Any airline, foreign or domestic, but they have to be coming or going from the US- and you’ll have to have booked directly with them. Also: No last minute deals. If it was booked less than a week before departure, you’re not legally entitled to a refund. Never hurts to ask, but technically, they don’t have to.
*American Airlines offers both a convenient 24-hour hold and a 24-hour cancellation. It also appears that all airlines have moved towards the cancellation rather than the hold policy in the time that has passed since the legislation was enacted.
Airline Policies
If you ever have trouble getting your refund, you can call the airline and quote them their own policy by clicking on these links that take you to the exact place on the webpage where the policies may be found. I hope this table helps you! the Aeroméxico one was legitimately difficult to locate on their website. It’s like they don’t want you to know 🤔
| Airline | Exact Place Where You Can Find Their Cancelation Policy |
| American Airlines | https://bit.ly/3PErBFD |
| Delta Air Lines | https://bit.ly/3j30rfj |
| United Airlines | https://bit.ly/3V3L9UY |
| Southwest Airlines | https://bit.ly/3hkqdeB |
| Air Canada | https://bit.ly/3uQKY4I |
| Alaska Airlines | https://bit.ly/3UX0rdY |
| JetBlue Airways | https://bit.ly/3PGVTaN |
| Spirit Airlines | https://bit.ly/3BCq1ho |
| WestJet | https://bit.ly/3FwoCdk |
| Volaris | https://bit.ly/3FzLt87 |
| Frontier Airlines | https://bit.ly/3V4WTX0 |
| Aeroméxico | https://bit.ly/3BDsEje |
| Allegiant Air | https://bit.ly/3YoStND |
| VivaAerobus | https://bit.ly/3Pvbc68 |
| Hawaiian Airlines | https://bit.ly/3BDM730 |
| Sun Country Airlines | https://bit.ly/3BDUD21 Page 34, the very end of this PDF document (I was unable to link the exact spot, because it is a PDF) |
What to do if the 24-hour rule isn’t honored
If they still refuse to issue you a refund, you can report them to the USDOT by filling out this form: Airline Complaint Form. The airline is required to respond to these and a public database is maintained about which airlines are receiving complaints and a general sense of what these complaints are about. You can peruse the reports here. It might take a while, but if you are entitled to a refund, you should be able to get one through this process.
Let me know if you have anymore questions about this trick or the process and I hope the table above helped you!
PS: This was a little heavy at times. If I got any of the facts wrong, please correct me in the comments so everyone has the right information and so that I can improve! I would really appreciate any corrections!