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The most expensive mistake in air travel is not cancelling. If you simply do not show up, most non-refundable tickets are forfeited entirely — but if you cancel before departure, the same ticket usually converts to travel credit worth the full amount paid. Cancelling takes under a minute in the app and is worth doing even if you are already late.
Key Travel Facts & Insights
This is the step that matters most. Open the airline app, find the reservation and select Cancel. Do it even if departure is minutes away — the difference between cancelling and no-showing is usually the entire value of the ticket.
If you are within 24 hours of booking, or if the airline cancelled or significantly changed the flight, you are entitled to a refund to your original payment method rather than a credit. Do not accept a voucher in those situations.
Note the credit number, the amount, the expiry date and which passenger name it is attached to. Most credits are locked to the original traveller and expire on a date measured from the original booking, not from when you cancelled.
On an unused international ticket, the government taxes and airport charges component is refundable even when the fare is not. On a long-haul ticket this can be a few hundred dollars. Airlines do not volunteer it — request it through Manage Booking.
Airlines distinguish sharply between a cancelled reservation and a no-show. Cancel, and a non-refundable ticket typically becomes credit for the full amount paid. No-show, and the ticket is usually void with no residual value at all — and on a round trip, the return leg is often cancelled automatically alongside it.
Southwest applies the strictest version of this: cancel at least 10 minutes before departure or the funds are forfeited. Most other carriers require cancellation before scheduled departure. In every case, cancelling is free and takes seconds.
Travel credit is airline currency: usable only with that airline, usually only by the original passenger, and only until it expires. A refund is money returned to your card.
The critical detail people miss is the expiry clock. Most carriers date credit validity from the original ticket issue date, not from the date you cancelled. Cancel a flight eleven months after booking and the credit may have only a month left.
Three situations produce a genuine refund rather than credit. First, cancelling within 24 hours of booking under the DOT rule. Second, holding a refundable fare. Third, the airline cancelling or significantly changing the flight, in which case DOT rules require an automatic cash refund if you decline the alternative.
That third case is the one airlines most often handle badly, offering a voucher as if it were the only option. It is not. You can decline the voucher and request the refund.
On a non-refundable ticket you normally forfeit the entire value, and on a round trip the return leg is often cancelled automatically as well. Cancelling instead — which takes under a minute in the app — usually preserves the full amount as travel credit. Cancel even if you are already running late.
Yes in three cases: within 24 hours of booking under the DOT rule, on a refundable fare, or when the airline cancels or significantly changes your flight and you decline the alternative. In that last case a cash refund is required by DOT rules even if the airline offers a voucher first.
Usually one year, but measured from the original ticket issue date rather than the cancellation date — which catches people out. Southwest credits from most fares no longer expire and Breeze credits run 24 months. Always check the specific expiry on the credit itself.
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