The 24-Hour Flight Cancellation Rule

What the 24-hour rule guarantees

US DOT rules require a full cash refund to the original payment method when you cancel within 24 hours of purchase on a ticket bought at least 7 days before departure — on any fare, including non-refundable tickets. The guarantee covers every airline selling tickets to or from the United States, and the money returns to the same card — no voucher, no credit conversion. A phone cancellation inside the window counts exactly like an online one.

Two conditions that trip people up

The 7-day purchase gap and the 24-hour clock start decide whether the refund is free. The DOT rule requires the ticket to be bought at least 7 days before departure — bought 5 days out, the rule stops applying and the fare's own cancellation fees take over. And the clock runs from the exact purchase time, not from midnight: a ticket bought at 9 PM expires at 9 PM the next day, so timing the call to tomorrow morning loses 21 of the 24 hours.

How to claim the refund in 3 steps

Have the confirmation code and the purchaser name ready, dial the desk, and ask for a cancellation with refund to the original payment method. The agent pulls the booking from the 6-letter code, confirms the purchase timestamp sits inside the 24-hour window, and processes the cancellation on the spot — confirmation arrives by email while you are on the line. Card refunds post within 7 business days under DOT timing rules.

After the window closes

Past 24 hours, the ticket's own fare rules take over: refundable fares return cash, and restricted fares return travel credit minus a cancellation fee. The full decision tree — credits versus cash, fees by fare family, airline-initiated cancellations, schedule changes — sits on our flight cancellation and refunds by phone page, and the same desk handles both cases 24 hours a day.