Airline refunds
The money your airline owes you (and hopes you won't claim).
US airlines cancel flights, shrink schedules, and downgrade cabins regularly, and federal rules already say what they owe you when it happens.
Not compensation, not goodwill: an actual cash refund to your original payment method, automatic in some cases and yours for the asking in others. None of it arrives if you take the voucher instead, and none of it applies once you have left US airspace and US rules behind.
These are US Department of Transportation rules. They cover flights to, from, or within the US on covered carriers, not a purely foreign domestic flight bought wholly abroad. Two things make each right below actually pay out: you have to decline the rebooking, voucher, or credit rather than accept it, and if a middleman, an OTA or ticket agent that is merchant of record, handled your money instead of the airline, some of this becomes something you have to ask for rather than something that happens on its own.
Three situations, checked against the regulation
Where the money is actually recoverable.
Each one below carries its own condition. None of them are unconditional, and none of them are as narrow as "any delay."
1. The airline cancels or significantly changes your flight
Automatic cash refund, even on a nonrefundable ticket, if you decline the substitute.
2. You just booked and want out
A 24-hour hold or a 24-hour refund, direct-airline bookings only.
3. The airline didn't deliver something you paid for
Refundable, once you report it. Applies to paid extras and badly delayed bags.
1. The airline cancels or significantly changes your flight
Cancel your flight, or change it enough, and you are owed an automatic cash refund to your original payment method, even on a ticket marked nonrefundable, as long as you decline the rebooking, voucher, or credit the airline offers instead. Accept the voucher and you have made your choice. This right is for travelers who say no.
"Significant change" means either of two separate things. The list below is two paths, not one. The second path qualifies on its own, with no hour threshold to clear.
Path A: a schedule move past the threshold
- Departure moved 3+ hours earlier (domestic) or 6+ hours earlier (international)
- Arrival delayed 3+ hours (domestic) or 6+ hours (international)
Path B: any of these, regardless of timing
- A different origin or destination airport
- An added connection
- A downgrade to a lower cabin
- Certain aircraft or connection changes that reduce accessibility for a passenger with a disability
The clock, once you're owed a refund:
- 7 business days if you paid by credit card
- 20 calendar days for every other payment method (calendar, not business, whatever a stray DOT web page might say)
This buys back the unused transportation and any refundable charges attached to it. It is not a right to fly the trip and keep the fare too, and it will not fund a replacement ticket on another airline.
Source: 14 CFR Part 260 and DOT's refunds page.
2. You just booked and want out, the 24-hour rule
Book a US flight 7 or more days before departure, and the airline has to let you out of it one of two ways: a free 24-hour hold before you pay, or a full refund if you cancel within 24 hours of paying. It only has to offer one, not both, so check which one you actually got.
Direct-airline bookings only. Book through an OTA or ticket agent and this rule does not reach them, though some mirror it voluntarily. It is a refund-or-hold right, not a free do-over on a misspelled name or a changed date.
Source: DOT's 24-hour rule.
3. You paid for something the airline didn't deliver
Pay for Wi-Fi that never connects, or a seat that turns out broken, and that specific charge is refundable, though an individual failure usually needs to be reported before it comes back.
A checked bag that shows up badly late can also get you the bag fee back, not the contents, just the fee, once you have filed a mishandled-baggage report.
The delayed-bag thresholds
- 12 hours, domestic
- 15 hours, international, if the nonstop US-international segment ran 12 hours or less
- 30 hours, international, if that segment ran longer than 12 hours
Source: 14 CFR Part 260.
The decision path
Does this actually apply to you?
Situation 1's cancellation and significant-change right, drawn as one path from top to bottom.
A flight to, from, or within the US
not a foreign domestic flight bought abroad
Did the airline cancel or significantly change it?
3h+ domestic, 6h+ international, airport, cabin
Did you decline the rebooking or voucher?
take the voucher and you have chosen it
You are owed a cash refund
to your original payment, even on a nonrefundable fare
Who charged you?
The airline
pays automatically
An OTA or agent
usually pays on request, so ask
Cash back: 7 business days on a card
20 calendar days by other methods
A "no" at either question above is not a dead end. The 24-hour rule and the delayed-bag rules are separate rights on this same page, each with its own condition.
The four questions that get your money back
Whichever situation you are in, the same short decision aid gets you to the refund.
Who charged you?
The airline's name on your confirmation doesn't mean the airline is who is holding your money. Booked through an OTA? File with both the OTA and the airline; whichever was the merchant of record is who owes you.
Do you have to ask?
A direct-airline cancellation or significant change is automatic; decline the substitute and that's it. An OTA or agent usually pays out on request. Ancillary failures and delayed bags always need a report from you first.
What's the clock?
7 business days by card, 20 calendar days for anything else. Note the date you were told, since that's what starts it.
What do you keep?
Your booking confirmation, the actual charge on your statement, and whatever notice you got of the cancellation, delay, or downgrade. A mishandled-bag report, if one applies.
Sources, and how this page was checked
Last checkedSep 2026, against eCFR
- 14 CFR Part 260, refunds for airline fare and ancillary service feesthe refund trigger on cancellation or significant change, the definition of significant change, the refund clock, and the delayed-bag fee return
- DOT, air travel refundsthe 24-hour hold-or-refund requirement and its direct-airline-only scope, plus the consumer-facing overview of the Part 260 rights
Our own readA narrow DOT enforcement carve-out lets a flight-number-only change pass without triggering a refund, as long as nothing about the itinerary itself significantly changes. It is not a general suspension of the refund rule, and this page does not treat it as one. Refund figures above are our own compression of the regulation's own timing and thresholds, not a DOT-published table, and the ancillary-fee disclosure rule (a separate rule from the refund rights on this page) is currently dead and watched only, not stated as an active right here.
Ask. Don't wait.
Every one of these was already written into US law before you ever had a problem. The airline is not going to volunteer any of it, and the two most common ways a real refund quietly turns into a voucher are picking the easy button at the gate counter, and letting an OTA sit on money that was never really theirs to keep. Decline the substitute, ask the entity that actually charged you, and keep your dates. None of this is about what you paid extra for in the first place: bags, seats, and the right to change your mind are a different story, and a legal one. See what your fare doesn't include. And if you are still deciding how to book the trip at all, see what actually makes a flight cheaper, and what's just folklore.