Category
Air travel explained from the primary sources — U.S. Department of Transportation consumer protection rules and airlines' own published policies on refunds, changes, baggage, and carry-on limits.
Flights & Airlines
Airfares change by the minute, so this guide does not compare ticket prices. It compares the rules that decide what happens when your plans change: change and cancellation fees by fare type, how long credits last, what the cheapest fare gives up, and checked bag fees.
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Southwest is the only airline in this comparison that charges no change or cancellation fee on every fare type, including Basic. The trade-offs are newer: checked bags now cost money on most fares, Basic fares carry no seat selection and a 6-month credit, and only the two highest fares refund to your card.
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Delta drops change fees on Classic and higher fares from the U.S. and Canada and now publishes a fee to change or cancel Basic tickets. The catches are a 1-year eCredit on cancelled non-refundable fares, standard bag fees, and conflicting wording about Basic between two of its own pages.
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Alaska's Main and First Class fares change and cancel without a fee, and First Class includes two heavy bags. Its Saver fare is the most restrictive in this comparison, and two official Alaska pages describe Saver cancellations differently.
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American's Main Cabin and higher fares change for free on trips starting in the Americas, and it publishes its whole fee schedule clearly. Basic Economy is locked after 24 hours, and its bag fees are now the highest of the four airlines here.
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Flights & Airlines
If an airline cancels or significantly changes your flight, you are owed a cash refund — automatically, without filing a claim or accepting a voucher. That is the core of the U.S. Department of Transportation's final rule on refunds, issued April 24, 2024, and it is worth understanding before you spend money protecting a trip, because these rights apply regardless of whether you bought travel insurance. Here is what the rule requires, per DOT's own pages. When an airline cancels a flight or makes a significant change and you don't accept the alternative offered (rebooking or a voucher), the airline must refund you — and DOT is explicit that "a refund must be issued to you automatically without you having to make a request." The refund must come in cash or your original form of payment, must cover the full amount including government- and airline-imposed taxes and fees (minus any portion of the trip you already flew), and the airline may not substitute a voucher or travel credit unless you affirmatively accept one. What counts as a "significant change"? DOT defines it concretely: your departure or arrival moves by three or more hours on a domestic flight (six or more internationally), your origin or destination airport changes, connections increase, you are involuntarily downgraded to a lower class of service — or, for passengers with a disability, you are routed through a different connecting airport or onto substitute aircraft without accessibility features you need. The rule also covers two things travelers routinely eat the cost of. First, checked bag fees: if you file a mishandled-baggage report and your bag isn't delivered within 12 hours of your domestic flight arriving at the gate (15 or 30 hours for international, depending on flight length), the bag fee must be refunded. Second, ancillary fees: if you paid for Wi-Fi, seat selection, or another extra and the airline didn't provide it, that fee is refundable too. Timing is specified: refunds are due within 7 business days for credit card purchases and 20 calendar days for other payment methods. And if you are unable to travel because of a serious communicable disease, the rule requires transferable travel credits or vouchers valid for at least five years. Two honest caveats. The rule was issued with phased implementation periods — DOT describes six months for automatic refunds and twelve for the communicable-disease vouchers — so the protections phased in from late 2024; we did not find a single consolidated effective-date list on DOT's pages, and we cite the periods as DOT states them. And the refund obligation runs on flights the airline cancels or significantly changes: if you cancel a nonrefundable ticket yourself, this rule does not make it refundable — that is the gap products like trip-cancellation insurance and Cancel For Any Reason upgrades exist to fill. Before you pay for any protection product, know what you already get free: airline-caused cancellations and significant changes are refundable in cash, automatically, by federal rule.