If the airline changes my flight time, can I cancel and get a refund?

[eeyoresmom]

United has changed my flight time again.Can I get a refund if i'm not happy with the flight times now???

 

[FoodLover]

You sure can! Some airlines say the time change has to be "substantial" before they refund, but in my experience with the big airlines like American, United and Delta, I've always been able to get a refund (even on "nonrefundable" fares) if the flight times changed by more than a few minutes.

Be sure you can get better flights at a reasonable price before you cancel, though.

Mary
MouseSavers.com

 

[CarolA]

Not always. I assume it was a major change, then you probably can. DL has changed my March flight to London three times each less then 10 minutes. I am not entitled to a refund.

 

[bicker]

Most airline will allow you to do so, but it is often a matter of courtesy being shown to the passenger, rather than any obligation on the airline's part. The airline's responsibility is to get you from City A to City B on a specific date: The times, routing, number of connections, aircraft used, seat assignments, amenities, etc., are all explicitly excluded from the service specification by the contract every airline offers.

 

[FoodLover]

Most airline will allow you to do so, but it is often a matter of courtesy being shown to the passenger, rather than any obligation on the airline's part. The airline's responsibility is to get you from City A to City B on a specific date: The times, routing, number of connections, aircraft used, seat assignments, amenities, etc., are all explicitly excluded from the service specification by the contract every airline offers.

Actually not. The airlines all have rules regarding schedule changes that allow passengers to be refunded in certain circumstances. This is primarily due to a Dept of Transportation ruling that "carriers should not be applying nonrefundability/penalty provisions in situations in which a change in travel date or a significant change in scheduled departure or arrival time has been necessitated by carrier action. The same is true of a change in carriers or airports used, even without a significant schedule change, or a change from direct to connecting service or from nonstop service to a flight with a stop. We believe that imposing monetary penalties on passengers in these kind of situations or maintaining any contract of carriage or tariff provision mandating such a result would be grossly unfair and violate 49 U.S.C. 41712."

For instance, here's the rule for American Airlines:

http://www.aa.com/content/agency/Booking_Ticketing/Reaccom/rule_240_80.jhtml

Basically on AA, if your booked flight is subject to a schedule change and you don't like the alternative flight offered, you can get a refund if the change moved you from a nonstop to a connecting flight or if the change is greater than 90 minutes. I wasn't able to find United's rule on this in a quick search, but in my experience it's essentially the same as AA's.

I got two refunds on this basis last year: one from United because my nonstop became a connecting flight and the other from American because my original flight time was changed by about 2 hours.

Mary
MouseSavers.com

 

[eeyoresmom]

Thank you

 

[bicker]

It does appear that many of the airlines have adopted rule changes in response to this DOT letter. That's pretty impressive.

At United, the threshold for a schedule change for which they'll provide a refund is 90 minutes.