How to Adjust Your Flight Booking After a Price Drop

One spring day, I started to feel a bit anxious about securing Thanksgiving flights for my family of four traveling from San Francisco to Raleigh, North Carolina. Since the pandemic, airfare deals have become increasingly scarce due to a surge in travel demand, so I knew we had to act quickly to find a good price during this busy travel season.

After experiencing initial sticker shock at the sight of round-trip flights costing nearly $4,500 for all of us during Thanksgiving, I discovered much more reasonable fares around $1,500 by adjusting our travel dates (for example, flying on Thanksgiving Day itself). "We need to secure our North Carolina tickets ASAP!" I urged my husband, as we were heading to visit his family.

Weeks later, despite our best intentions, we still hadn’t booked the tickets due to the usual mix of communication breakdowns and coordinating time-off requests, among other life distractions. When I finally checked the prices, they had soared to $3,500. Feeling defeated and frustrated that I hadn’t booked when the fare was $1,500, I went ahead and purchased the tickets at the new, inflated price—our delay had cost us an extra $2,000.

A couple of months later, I noticed a new development: the flights had dropped in price again, and I recalled a tip Dinogo received from the flight deal tracking service Going.com about how to rebook your flight when the fare decreases.

Throughout the pandemic, major U.S. airlines—including Alaska, American, Delta, JetBlue, Hawaiian, and United—abandoned their longstanding policies regarding change fees for all fares except basic economy tickets. (Southwest had already eliminated change fees even before the pandemic hit.)

This shift means that making changes to your flight is now significantly easier and won't incur any costs. In the past, even if fares decreased, it often wasn't worth changing due to a change fee of $200, which could result in you paying the same or even more to switch flights just to capitalize on a lower fare.

Now, when the fare drops, you can cancel your flight, receive travel credits, and rebook at the reduced price without any fees—provided you didn't book a basic economy fare. While you’ll receive your money back in the form of flight credits instead of cash, it’s still a worthwhile option if you plan to use the credits within their validity period.

Steps to rebook your flight when the fare decreases

Having recently gone through this process myself, I’m here to share the exact steps I took.

1. Purchase the overpriced ticket. (Oops!)

2. Begin monitoring airfare again days, weeks, or even months later if you suspect you might have overpaid. I started checking fares a few weeks after booking my flights. If you set up a price alert tracker for your tickets, you can keep it active and receive alerts about the fluctuations in prices for your flights.

3. Explore Google Flights and compare it with the airline's website to see what fares are available. You can also try adjusting your travel dates a bit if you have some leeway. For my situation, I was committed to sticking with our original airline (United), but I noticed the potential to rebook with another airline offering lower rates while still keeping credit with the original carrier.

4. If you notice that fares have decreased, it’s time to act quickly. In my case, I found United flights for as low as $2,600, compared to the $3,500 we initially paid.

5. The process might vary slightly by airline, but here's what worked for United. I accessed my United booking, but when I attempted to simply 'change' the flight, United didn’t provide any flight credits for making a change. So instead, I canceled the return flight (which included a 50-minute layover in Washington Dulles, something I regretted after writing about how everyone should extend their layovers). I promptly received flight credits for that flight and then rebooked it at a lower fare (with a slightly longer layover) and now have $540 in flight credits (or $135 per family member) waiting in my United account.

6. Looking back, and feeling more assured, I should have canceled the entire trip and rebooked for two reasons: 1) The departing flight might have also been available at a lower price. 2) After canceling just the return segment, I realized that one-way fares could be more expensive than the cheaper round-trip options I was spotting online.

7. Regardless, it paid off! I secured the lower fare and even had some flight credits left over.

Going.com backed up my approach. "If you're looking to rebook your initial flight, most airlines make the process unclear. Often, they won’t even list your original flight as an option when you attempt to change your reservation," the deal tracking service explains. "Instead, the best course is to cancel your original flight, receive travel credits in return, and then promptly rebook at the new [lower] fare."

Each airline has its own nuances, so it can be wise to experiment with a few strategies before making a final decision. For example, I initially considered changing my flight before realizing that canceling and rebooking was the most effective option.

Also, remember that this approach doesn’t apply to basic economy fares, which is something to keep in mind when making your initial booking. How do you weigh the benefits of a cheaper basic economy fare against a pricier option that could potentially drop?

Going suggests, "If we're considering a fare that's already quite low, or a flight coming up soon that's unlikely to decrease, we would opt for basic economy. However, if we're booking a flight six months in advance and the main economy tickets are only $30 or $40 higher, we would choose those. There’s plenty of time in those six months for prices to drop, and when they do, we want to take full advantage of it."

Additionally, remember that any "money" you receive back will likely come as flight credits that must be used within a specific timeframe. So, be sure to note the expiration date to avoid losing it by not utilizing it.

This article was first published in August 2022 and updated on March 27, 2024, to reflect the latest information.