There can be countless unexpected events in life that can complicate your planned journey.

What should you do if you need to reschedule or cancel your flight and get your money back?

Change your flight? Only if the fare allows it

If you want to change your ticket on your own initiative, it is essential to know which fare it was purchased on.

When you buy a flight, most airlines will offer you several different fare packages, graded according to price and benefits.

The cheapest fares usually don't include checked baggage, for example, but they also often don't allow any changes at all.

Some of the cheapest fares do allow changes, but at a fee + surcharge to the new price.

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How do I know I can change my reservation?

If you are buying your ticket directly from the airline's website, in most cases you will see the conditions for changing or cancelling your entire trip when you purchase the fare, such as in the attached image below.

If you are buying a flight through another agency (OTA), it may not always be clear at a glance whether you can change the flight or not.

Reputable agencies make this clear in the fare conditions, but many less reputable sellers do not make the possibility of changing the flight clear at all.

What can I change?

If the fare allows you to change your flight, you can usually change the following:

• ✅ the date or time of the flight
• ✅ cancel the entire booking

What can't usually be changed?

• ❌ transfer the flight to another passenger
• Details are described in the article How to change the name on a ticket and sell it

Beware of fees

Changing or cancelling a flight by a passenger is almost never without fees.

The amount varies depending on the specific fare, airline or route and usually ranges from 100 eur to 300 eur.

• Buying from an airline - you pay the airline fee
• Buying from an agency (OTA) - you pay the agency fee + the airline fee

When can I change my flight for free?

The only way you can change your flight for free, even with a fare that doesn't allow changes at all, is if the airline itself changes or even cancels your flight.

In this case, the airline must always offer you the option of changing to another flight or a refund.

• For details, see the article What to do if the airline changes your flight

How do I change my flight?

If you want to change your booking, you usually have several options.

• ✅ via web/mobile app
  • especially the big airlines often allow you to change via "Manage Booking" etc.
  • for smaller airlines this option is not usually available
• ✅ by phone
  • in the vast majority of cases the fastest solution
  • often the only possible solution, many airlines do not allow any other contact
  • some airlines do not have a free phone line, so you have no choice but to call abroad at high charges
• ➖ via social networks
  • if you don't feel like making a phone call, you can try contacting them via the airlines' official Facebook / Messenger / Instagram profiles
  • sometimes airline agents here respond quickly and are able to resolve the problem
  • however, this option is not always available and does not always work reliably
• ❌ Email
  • we recommend to try this option only if you have a lot of time before departure
  • often airlines do not respond to emails until several weeks later or even not at all