Following are the current 2019 cancellation and fare hold rules for each US airline offering flights to Hawaii. Keep these in mind before you buy your flights to Hawaii, just in case, and you might save yourself up to $200 in airline change fees or more.
1. Airlines are required by law to provide a complete refund on tickets within 24 hours of purchase, for any reason. That applies to all reservations made seven days or more prior to the flight’s scheduled departure time. Otherwise, there is only one airline that is completely without change fees, and that is Southwest Airlines.
2. Keep in mind that every airline will assess charges for differences in fares, when applicable. That means that if you snagged Cheap Flights to Hawaii one day, and try to change them when fares are higher, you could stand to pay a substantial difference in price. Again, that’s true regardless of which airline you are flying.
3. All airlines do offer refundable tickets. That having been said, the prices of those are so stratospheric that it may not even be worth mentioning.
4. Before you buy basic economy, know what you’re getting. Read our guide to basic economy to Hawaii.
5. Sometimes you just need to cancel, due to work, health or other issues. See how we saved over $600 using travel insurance.
Alaska Airlines: With basic economy, there are no changes allowed. With regular economy, unless you have status with Alaska, you will be charged $125 per person, per change, in addition to any difference in fare. If the change is for another flight on the same day, the fee is $50, instead of $125.
American Airlines: With basic economy, there are no changes allowed. With regular economy, a change fee of $200 ($75 for same day) applies in addition to any difference in fare. American also offers a 3, 5, 7 day extended hold for a non-refundable fee.
Delta Airlines: With basic economy, there are no changes allowed. With regular economy, a $200 change fee and any difference is airfare applies.
Hawaiian Airlines: Trans-Pacific, a $200 per person change fee applies, in addition to any difference in fare. Within Hawaii, a $30 change fee, in addition to fare difference applies. A 3 and 7 day fare hold is available for an additional, non-refundable fee. Hawaiian is poised to introduce Main Cabin Basic economy later this year, which will likely offer no changes.
Southwest Airlines: Southwest charges no change fees. You can change flights as frequently as you’d like, and you will only be charged the current available price for the new ticket. If the price drops from what you previously paid, you’ll receive a credit. Should you need to cancel your flight, you will receive 100% of the price paid as a credit towards future travel. Travel credits expire one year from booking date.
United Airlines: With basic economy, there are no changes allowed. A $200 per person change fee ($75 for same day), in addition to any difference in fare applies. Also 3 and 7 day fare lock for a non-refundable fee is available.
Have you used the free 24 hour cancellation or the extended hold options or gotten stuck with the up to $200 change fees?
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I recently made changes to my Hawaiian tickets and was not able to get a refund. Instead, they gave me their non-transferable, must-use-within-one year travel voucher. Here’s what happened: I had purchased tickets using my Hawaiian credit card several months ago. Then a week or so ago, I noticed the exact same flight was reduced by about $250. I called them, they made the change, charged me $40 per ticket change, and issued their travel voucher for the remainder. Any suggestions on how I can legally get the voucher converted to a credit on my card? Mahalo in advance.
Hi Sccabindad.
As far as we know, there is no obligation on the airline’s part to provide you with a credit card credit. And it is doubtful that they would do so. You can try writing to their customer relations, just to see what they say, however.
Aloha.
Today checked our flights we booked back in April and they’d gone down $150 each so I got the new low price, said ok to the $80 admin fee and will get voucher for $220. Already booked our Kauai condo for next year so it’s a good day! Mahalo Beat of Hawaii!
Hi Susan.
Glad that worked out and thanks for letting us know!
Aloha.
Was really impressed with Mokulele Airlines. Delta had rearranged our flight home and moved it forward by 3 hours. We would have missed it as our flight from Molokai wouldn’t have arrived until after the plane took off.
When I spoke to Mokulele they graciously waved the change fee and only charged for the difference in ticket price when I asked to swap to an early flight as the change had been caused by Delta.
I was most surprised and really really grateful that they did this. I’ve never flown with them before, but am really looking forward to using them as they’ve created a really great first impression.
Great article, thank you!
Regarding “economy fares” I recently used booming company “Cheapo-Air” on Alaska Airlines.
The good:
The price of airfare was indeed substantially cheaper than booking coach direct from the airline.
The bad:
The economy fare all but guaranteed that the dreaded “middle seat” at the back of the plane will be your ride for the trip. Seats could not be assigned until I was at the airport. Boarding party was last…important if you need overhead bin space for your carry one, which are getting bigger and bigger as luggage fees grow higher and higher.
I feel I lucked out when I approached the Alaska gate agent and offered to pay for a seat upgrade. Normally this is not allowed under the economy seat- but I got lucky. Lucky is a relative term, since the fee was more than if I had booked a coach seat originally.
Live and learn as they say! Cheapo Air and budget economy just isn’t for me. It’s not about being snobbish either. Travel can be stressful as it is. Not being squashed in the middle and basically guaranteed bin space is peace of mind I realize it worth it to me!
I would just like to send a kuddos out to Alaska Airlines. We were packed and ready to go to Hawaii but stopping in Seattle for a few days first. Unfortunately, my husband got really really sick late the night before our trip. When I called Alaska Airlines the morning of our flight and told the representative what happened and that we were still trying to keep the Hawaii portion and what are my options. They charged me $43 for the difference in the flight to Seattle leaving three days later, but waived the change fee. I was so impressed. So, way to go Alaska Airlines!!
Very helpful info, mahalo!
Thanks for this. I was under the impression that all US based airlines had to have a 24 hour window to reserve or cancel. I’m looking forward to Virgin flying directly to Kauai. It will force the other airlines to have friendlier policies.
Airfares are great for this spring. Are there going to be comparable fares in October? We will be flying out of Oakland, ca. We haven’t decided if we are just going to Maui or start in Honolulu spend a couple of days then flying to Maui.
Hi Karen,
Every reason to think the bay area environment will remain favorable for great prices.
Aloha.
A couple of years ago we booked with United for crazy high rates to go to Maui at Christmas. When Delta opened up their new SEA-OGG route there were much better fares. So we cancelled with United and took a credit. We were told we they would subtract the $200 each when we redeemed the credit. We were able to use the credit with no deductions. I guess we got lucky!
The Virgin $25 up front change fee sounds interesting. Thanks for keeping us up to date on the latest Hawai’i travel news.
Thank you so much for all the helpful articles, fare alerts & helpful info. We LOVE your website and auto emails.
We are having tou me with Hawaiian and thought you may be able to provide some insight. I sent this email to them over a week ago after being told that the reservation office could not help us and the only people that could were not reachable by phone. Must admit I am a little less excited about Hawaiian airlines as I was before since it has been since March 20th.
Hello – We have been faithful Alaska Airlines customers for years, however, once in a while we have chosen Hawaiian airlines due to a schedule preference. Our experiences have always been very positive and have actually enjoyed flying with Hawaiian Airlines very much. The roominess of the planes and the kind hospitality have been encouraging reasons to choose Hawaiian airlines for our annual holiday trip. However, we have a couple bumps in the road. In December, we requested a fair guarantee refund for our daughter’s ticket and were assured we would receive an email in no more than 3-week with a code we could utilize for our next trip. We called many times and we did not receive this notification prior to us booking our next trip so it has gone unused. As I recall it expires in 1-year so we did not receive the benefit of this refund. Now, this evening I call to reschedule our departure date from December 7th to December 6th and i am told that there is a $200 fee per ticket to re-book. This was very disappointing! I looked on the fare rules from the link on your reservation and this is not disclosed on the link. After 20-minutes of clicking on additional links on your website I found this information, but this is not disclosed on the reservation ticket information. A new ticket on December 6th is only $219. The amount of time it has taken to call to request the fare guarantee, the multiple times i have called to request the credit toward the new reservation and now the $200 per ticket fee to change definitely sours my enthusiasm to choose Hawaiian for our annual trips each year. each year 8-12 of us fly to Maui and choosing Hawaiian is something we hoped to do. We respectfully request that our flights are changed with no fee to December 6th and the fare guarantee is refunded to our credit cards. Respectfully, Kimberly
Kindest regards,
Kim
Hi Kim,
Thanks for your nice words regarding Beat of Hawaii. We obviously cannot speak for airlines. Posting here may help as the airlines are aware of the website and our visitor comments. Assuming you wrote to their consumer affairs office, you might want to also follow up by phone.
Aloha.