Schedule Change Guide: How To Get The Best Flights for Less

Schedule Change Guide

Ever since the Covid Pandemic, airlines have been constantly shifting their schedules around. This is mainly due to the fact that there is uncertainty with schedules. Previously, there was consistent demand on routes such as JFK to LAX, but since the pandemic demand for this route as well as countless others have seen constant changes as airlines juggle their routes around. With that comes with liberal rebooking policies that can allow you to switch from cheap itineraries with long layovers to ones that are convenient, and ideally, nonstop. Let’s dive into this schedule change guide.

What is a Schedule Change

A schedule change is a change in your flights that have shifted since after you book it up until a couple of days before departure. Once it is the day of, the restrictions are different and the restrictions become even more liberal. In that case, you can often fly a competitor airline. So if you are flying from Chicago to Miami on American and there is a long maintenance delay, a good agent may even allow you to be rerouted on United instead. The American Airlines definition is:

“A Schedule Change is a planned change that may occur more than 72 hours prior to the flight’s scheduled departure.”

So based on this, any changes that the airline makes up until 72 hours are considered to be a schedule change. Having said that, at least for the US airlines, you won’t see any additional changes made after 60 days before departure. This is because 60 days is usually when their schedule is finalized and they start preparing to crew those flights.

Schedule Change Guide – How You Can Use This Rule to Your Advantage

It depends on the airline, but some airlines, particularly the U.S. ones, have generous rescheduling and rerouting restrictions, with the main ones being Southwest and Delta. In addition, I have found that Delta and Frontier have a never ending amount of schedule changes, and if you book at least 4-5 months out you’re pretty much guaranteed to have a schedule change. However, with Delta, if you are flying to/from LHR (London Heathrow), HND (Tokyo-Haneda), or any other airport with slot restrictions, then you are less likely to have a schedule change because airlines have to take off or land at these airports at a specific time thus they can’t change that departure time too much.

With that being said, it will likely go something like this. You book a flight from AAA-BBB-CCC for $300 roundtrip in April for a trip in August. If you want to use this to your advantage, you should also book something with a connection since it is double the chance of a change. After that, it is all a waiting game.

A couple of weeks go by, and then sure enough, you get notified of a change, which depending on the policy of the airline allows you to do one of a couple of things:

• Change your flight up to +/- 1, 2, or in the case of Southwest, 14 days
• Change the departure or arrival airport to a coterminal airport (DFW to DAL, ICN to GMP, or JFK to LGA or EWR)
• Change to an earlier or later flight
• Change a trip with long layovers to one with shorter layovers
• Get Elite Qualifying Miles for the Longer Itinerary (Only if the program is distance based), and even get upfared which means you would earn more miles.

In the case of changing your flight, this can be exploited in some insane ways. For example, if you are traveling for Christmas, you can book your flight on 12/25 and then in then change it to leave 12/26, which is much more expensive. Or in the case of Southwest, your outbound flight could be booked 12/9, which is not when prices are high, and then your return can be booked as 1/12, but you are actually returning 12/30 and leaving on 12/23. Using Southwest as an example, if you were flying using the previously mentioned dates around Christmas, it would be $751. But, if you used the maximum 14 day range and you changed them to your ideal dates, then it would only be $353. That is an extreme example since it is peak season, going to/from Florida during peak season, etc. But at the same time, it shows how useful this could be particularly if it is for 3+ people.

And because of this, there is little to no reason to pay for the better time or routing, since you may be able to change to the better time or routing anyways. But if you are booking 60 or less days out, then it is best to pay for this better routing.

Real Life Examples

The two airlines that I have gotten the most schedule changes from are Delta, Frontier, and United. For Frontier, they send an email daily to remind you to acknowledge the change, cancel altogether, or reschedule. For Frontier, you can change before or after and also leave to or from another airport within the same city.

So in my case, my flight from MDW to PHX to LAS cost $65 for the both of us (I didn’t make any typos, I promise 😉). The catch was that it had a 6 hour layover, but that was fine by us since we have friends in the area. I booked that in February for travel in May. By the middle of March, I received an email saying it was changed to a 3 hour layover. Not great. Fortunately, I could change it to a same-day nonstop option that was instead MDW to LAS. That was double the price, so pretty great in my book.

The next example is with Delta. I am supposed to be flying LAS to DTW to HPN (Westchester County, New York), which I booked back in November. That was only $300 and we also used a companion pass so I was free. I have already made one change, but since there was yet another change, I can change to another flight. Delta also allows for changes to any flight available in your ticketed cabin, which means that you can change to one with a much shorter layover if you prefer.

And note that distinction about fare class availability. You can be in basic economy, and if your flight only has Y availability, which is the highest fare bucket, then you can change to that. In fact, you can even earn miles based on that new fare class. This would be something particularly good for mileage runs, as you could change from DFW to ATL to CDG to DFW to ATL to JFK to LHR to CDG. That being said, Delta must publish the routing and you have to be able to book it online, so that would still prevent you from booking DFW to ATL to ICN to CDG, for example.

Schedule Change Guide – How to Get Notified of Schedule Changes

There are a couple of ways to get notified of schedule changes. Airlines should notify you of the change through either email or texts, but I find that it more often than not does not happen (at least for Alaska and Delta). Instead, I have resorted to either frequently checking reservations (also known as gardening), or using a tool such as ExpertFlyer, AwardWallet, or Flighty.

DOT Rules

The US Department of Transportation, which is also known as the DOT, has some new rules which took effect this past November. Overall I think these changes are a mixed bag. It is good in two ways. One, it clarifies that a schedule change is defined by any change in flight number, even if the times are the same, and also that one could get a refund if the change is 3+ hours domestically and 6 internationally. But that is also the drawback. United and Delta, for example, provided refunds on 2+ hour changes, whereas nowadays it is 3 domestically and 6 internationally.

But at least with the new law, it does mean that if the airline (most likely phone rep) refuses to honor it, then you can make a DOT complaint about that and you should win per the DOT rules.

EU Rules

Unlike the U.S., the EU rules for schedule changes are not that helpful. No compensation or anything along those lines is due for this type of change, unfortunately. Having said that, the rules are very helpful if you encounter a delay 14 days out though, as the same delay rules apply if you face a delay with your flight. And best of all, in terms of EU rules, a delay is also classified as a cancellation if it is delayed by 3+ hours. The compensation that you would get is as follows:

• All flights that are less than 1,500 kilometers and have delays of more than 2 hours mean you are owed 250 Euros.
• If you are flying 1,500 kilometers and delayed by then more 2 hours, then you also get 250 Euros.
• Non internal EU flights between 1,500 and 3,500 kilometers with delays of more than three hours mean you are owed 400 Euros
• Non internal EU flights with delays of 4 or more hours that are more than 3,500 kilometers are eligible for 600 Euros in compensation.

Having said that, if there is a massive storm, an air traffic control strike, or something else that is defined as “extraordinary”, then you wouldn’t be eligible.

Airline Policies

Airline schedule change policies vary a lot on the airline. For example, Southwest allows for the rebooking of +/- 14 days for a simple 5 minute change, whereas British Airways does not allow anything. Nonetheless, here is an overall summary of the different airline travel policies:

• Southwest Airlines:
  • You can change it twice and sometimes three times depending on how significant the change is.
  • You can change it to a flight +/- 14 days of the original flight.
  • A free change is also available to a coterminal airport, such as Chicago O’Hare to Midway, LAX to Ontario, etc.
  • The new change can be made up to 10 minutes before departure.
  • Even 5 minute changes should be eligible for this, and a flight number does as well due to the DOT rules.
• Delta Airlines:
  • One free change is allowed.
  • The new flight can be +/- 1 day from the original one.
  • The new flight can be at a different airport up to 100 miles away.
  • Even if you are in basic economy, the new flight can be booked all the way up to “Y” class. this is the highest fare bucket, so this means you basically have last seat availability.
  • A free change is possible if you go from a nonstop to a connecting flight, or from Delta to Delta Connection and vice-versa.
  • If your flights no longer meet the minimum connection time (MCT), then that qualifies for a free change.
  • Flight changes over 60 minutes shouldn’t get free changes, but I haven’t had issues with this at all (20+ schedule changes)
  • If there is a schedule change on a basic economy ticket, then you need to call to get it changed because the rebooking tool will refuse changes.
  • Refunds are only allowed if the change is 3+ hours domestically and 6 internationally, but YMMV.
• American Airlines:
  • One free change is allowed
  • The rebooked flight must stay in basic economy or go up to H class in the case of main cabin flights.
  • Limited changes if your flight is changed by less than 60 minutes and didn’t have a flight number change. That being said, there is an incredible number of varying data points about this meaning YMMV.
  • Any rebooked flights that don’t meet the MCT allow for a change.
  • Refunds require a 3+ hour schedule change domestically or a 4 hour change for international itineraries and/or a flight number change.
  • An equipment swap to a worse plane allows for a refund.
  • The flight can be within 24 hours of the scheduled departure or 7 days before or after the originally scheduled flight.
  • Flights at coterminals are an option if the times are similar to the originally scheduled flight.
  • The rebooked flight is ideally on AA, but if flights are not available, then you can be rebooked on a JV partner (BA, JAL, Iberia, Qantas, or Qatar).
• Air Canada:
  • One free change is allowed.
  • If there is a departure time change of 3 hours or less, then it is eligible for changes within +/- 3 days of the original travel dates for North America and +/- 7 days for all other destinations.
  • Unused tickets with a departure time change of 3 hours or more are eligible for changes within +/- 30 days of the original travel dates for all destinations.
  • Air Canada flights can be changed to coterminals but partner flights cannot.
  • A change in the connecting city is permitted.
  • Basic, Standard, Flex, and Comfort fares can be rebooked up to M.
  • Latitude and Aeroplan fares can be rebooked up to Y.
  • Ideally the new flights are on Air Canada metal, followed by Air Canada marketed flights, airlines in the fare rules, on Star Alliance, and lastly on interline partners.
  • There have been datapoints about small time changes no longer allowing changes and cancellations, but like many things, YMMV.
• Frontier:
  • One free change is allowed.
  • The new flight must be +/- 1 day from the old one.
  • Cancellation fees are waived.
  • It is possible to switch coterminals.
  • You can make these changes on http://travel.flyfrontier.com.
• Spirit:
  • There are not a lot of datapoints on Spirit and even after flying them 10+ times I have yet to have a schedule change.
    • However, a Flyertalk data point says that they won’t make any changes unless your flight has been changed by 2 hours.
• United:
  • Any schedule change that is more than 60 minutes allows for a change to another United flight.
  • A 2+ hour change allows for changing to another United flight or a refund.
  • One free change is allowed.
  • The new flight can be booked up to M class or 4 classes higher, if the current class is not available whichever is lower.
    • The exact same policy is applicable to partner bookings.

Should I Pay More For the Better Timed Flight?

There are two answers to this question. If you are booking 6-12 months out of or to a non slotted airport on a US airline, then I don’t think you should pay extra for a better timed flight. You should still be prepared to take that routing and if a free change hasn’t occurred 40-60 days in, you might want to pay extra for the better flight.

However, if you are flying on an Asian airline (such as JAL and ANA, which have pretty consistent schedules year after year), flying to/from a non slotted airport, or booking a flight 30-60 days out, then I would be much more willing to pay for the better timed flight or routing, as I don’t think there is much of a likelihood of the flight changing.

Award Bookings

Award bookings are a whole other beast. They are treated pretty much the same way as a cash ticket is for the Big 3 and Southwest. The same rules apply, and you can change to pretty much any desired routing that is allowed based on the rules above. However, if you are using Turkish miles to fly United, then it is a lot more complicated. The airline you booked with will usually rebook you, and then from there, unless if there is award availability on your desired flights, then you are pretty much out of luck.

Schedule Change Guide – Final Thoughts

Schedule changes can definitely be a hassle. And if you booked far in advance, then the higher likelihood there is for one to happen. And if you paid extra for a better timed flight, then the airline might unfortunately tell you that it’s tough luck. But, if you got bad yet cheap flights, then it is an amazing thing. This is because many airlines allow you to change to better timed flights with shorter layovers.

What are your thoughts on schedule changes? Let me know in the comments below!