For flights to, from, or within the United States, an airline generally must refund your ticket when it cancels your flight or makes a qualifying significant change and you decline the alternative travel or compensation it offers. The refund must go to your original form of payment and, when the right is undisputed, be issued automatically—within seven business days for a credit-card payment or 20 calendar days for other payment methods. Separate rules cover certain delayed-bag fees and paid services the airline does not provide.
When a cancellation or flight change qualifies for a refund
A cancellation qualifies regardless of its cause. If your airline offers a rebooking, travel credit, voucher, or another alternative, you can decline it and seek the refund instead. If you accept a rebooking and travel on it, you generally are not entitled to a ticket refund under this rule.
A schedule change is “significant” under DOT’s rule if it involves one or more of these changes:
- Your domestic flight departs at least three hours earlier or arrives at least three hours later than scheduled.
- Your international flight departs at least six hours earlier or arrives at least six hours later than scheduled.
- Your origin or destination airport changes.
- A connection is added to your itinerary.
- You are downgraded to a lower class of service.
- A change to a connection or aircraft makes travel less accessible or accommodating for a passenger with a disability in circumstances covered by the rule.
The time thresholds are not a general rule that every three-hour delay earns a refund: they apply to an earlier departure or a later arrival, and the other qualifying changes do not depend on a delay threshold. See DOT’s passenger explainer for the full criteria.
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How much the refund covers, and when it must arrive
For an eligible ticket refund, the airline must return the unused portion of the ticket and applicable government and airline fees. The refund goes to the original form of payment; a carrier cannot require you to take a voucher instead. You may choose a voucher, but DOT says offered credits or vouchers must be valid for at least five years and their material terms must be disclosed. The standard refund deadlines are:
| Original payment method | Deadline |
|---|---|
| Credit card | Seven business days |
| Other payment methods | 20 calendar days |
These are DOT’s deadlines for issuing the refund, not a guarantee about when a bank or card issuer will post it to your account. Refunds are automatic when the right is undisputed. The airline must tell affected passengers about their refund rights when it makes an alternative offer, and it may set a reasonable deadline for responding. Check your email, texts, and airline app so you do not miss an offer or response deadline. Details are in the DOT final-rule summary.
Refunds for delayed bags and missing paid services
Checked-bag fees
You can qualify for a refund of the checked-bag fee when your bag is significantly delayed, but you must file a mishandled-baggage report. DOT’s thresholds are measured after the aircraft reaches the gate:
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| Flight | Significant-delay threshold |
|---|---|
| Domestic | 12 hours after gate arrival |
| International, flight up to 12 hours | 15 hours after gate arrival |
| International, flight longer than 12 hours | 30 hours after gate arrival |
This is a refund of the bag fee, not blanket compensation for lost belongings, incidental costs, or other losses. DOT describes the reporting requirement and exceptions in its automatic-refund explainer.
Paid services the airline does not provide
If you paid for an optional service that the airline fails to provide—such as Wi-Fi, a selected seat, or inflight entertainment—you can request a refund of that service fee. These ancillary-fee rights are separate from the ticket-refund rules for cancellations and significant changes.
Which company handles the refund if you booked through an agent?
For airfare booked through an online travel agency or another ticket agent, check your card statement to identify the merchant of record. That merchant is responsible for a qualifying airfare refund. For a baggage fee or optional-service fee for something the airline did not provide, DOT directs consumers to request the refund from the airline, even if an agent processed payment.
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Keep your booking confirmation, schedule-change notice, the airline’s alternative offer, and any response you sent. If a required refund is not provided, you can submit a complaint through DOT’s refund guidance page. A complaint is not a prerequisite to the airline’s refund deadline.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.When the rules apply—and the narrow 2026 exception
DOT’s compliance guide says the airfare-refund and notification provisions required by the FAA Reauthorization Act apply to qualifying cancellations or significant delays on or after May 16, 2024, even if the ticket was bought earlier. Other refund requirements, including refunds for significantly delayed-bag fees and services not provided, generally apply to events on or after October 28, 2024. See the DOT compliance guide for effective-date details.
As of October 4, 2026, DOT has a temporary, limited enforcement-discretion policy for certain renumbered flights. If you are successfully rebooked onto a flight with a different number and it operates without a significant change or delay, DOT will not enforce the specified cancellation-refund and notification requirements based on renumbering alone. The policy expires July 7, 2027. If the renumbering comes with a significant change or delay, the ordinary refund requirements remain enforceable. This is not a general suspension of the rule; see the Federal Register notice and DOT’s ticket-refund page.
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Do not confuse this with the 24-hour cancellation rule
The separate 24-hour reservation requirement applies to qualifying tickets bought at least seven days before departure. An airline must either allow cancellation and a full refund without penalty for 24 hours or offer a 24-hour hold without payment; it does not have to offer both. DOT explains the distinction in its refund guidance.
Why DOT adopted automatic refunds
DOT’s April 24, 2024 announcement said refund complaints reached 87 percent of all air-travel service complaints the department received at the height of the pandemic in 2020. That is a historic pandemic-era figure, not the current share of complaints. In the announcement, then-Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said: “Passengers deserve to get their money back when an airline owes them – without headaches or haggling.” DOT’s announcement introduced the final rule.
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