Taking advantage of the 24-hour free cancellation rule – canceling within 24 hours of booking for a full refund – is a critical cheap travel tactic. With some airlines, it gets even better.
With some airlines – most notably, American Airlines – you can hold an award ticket or even freeze a cash fare at the current price for 24 hours, a few days, or even weeks. Some airlines charge for these fare holds while others offer it free. Either way, it means you can ask for time off work, get the OK from your traveling companion, transfer your points and miles into your account, or just sleep on it before you actually put any money or points towards the trip.
If you can get a fare hold for free and use it on top of the 24-hour rule, it's a solid, risk-free strategy for booking travel.
Let's go over which airlines are offering the best fare holds and why you'd want to use them.
American Airlines ‘Fare Holds' Shine (Up to 4 Days Free!)
U.S. regulations require airlines to offer either a fare hold or honor the 24-hour cancellation rule. American Airlines does both.
American offers a 24-hour fare hold on all cash and award fares for free. You'll see that option as you go through the checkout process for each and every fare you book at aa.com.
Here's an example of why this policy is so powerful: A sizzling $230 roundtrip flight to the U.S. Virgin Islands that we sent to our Thrifty Traveler Premium subscribers.
When you see fares this low for peak season travel to the Virgin Islands, it's important to move quickly. That's where the fare hold comes in. When you move from Google Flights to book this with American, you get this menu of payment options at checkout.
When you use the “Hold for 24 hours” payment option, you don't even enter any payment information, but the flight is yours at that price whenever you want to pay in the next “24 hours.” I put “24 hours” in quotations because, just like with the 24-hour rule, you actually get longer than 24 hours.
The red-highlighted box shows that your fare hold actually takes you all the way until midnight the following day. When I locked in this fare hold, it was just before 9 a.m. EDT. That means I get essentially 14 extra hours on top of my 24-hour hold – effectively a 38-hour hold!
But it gets better … because if I wait for those 38 hours to pay, once I pay for the fare, I get a new clock with the 24-hour rule!
The fare rules pictured above specifically say you get 24 hours from when you “buy” your ticket – not when you “hold” it, so long as you book at least two days before departure. And like the “fare hold” rule, the 24-hour rule typically runs through just before midnight the following day.
That means, if you time it right, you can hold your fare for nearly four days before you have to pay for it!
Only one other U.S. airline offers any kind of fare hold, making this by far the best option.
Hold a Fare with United (For a Fee)
United will let you hold a fare up to two weeks, but you have to pay for it.
The price for what United calls “FareLock” goes up and down with the cost of the ticket. This Seoul (ICN) flight was in the $600s roundtrip. When I searched for domestic flight examples in the $300s roundtrip, the FareLock rates were much cheaper.
Fare Holds on Foreign Airlines
Even international airlines are required to honor the 24-hour rule – at least when flights touch U.S. soil. But several major foreign carriers offer a paid option to lock in a price for longer, including:
- Air France/KLM
- All Nippon Airways (ANA)
- British Airways
- Emirates
- Iberia
- Lufthansa
- Qatar Airways
- Turkish Airlines
Holding Award Award Fares
Fare holds can be especially important if you are trying to book using points and miles – particularly if you're booking a business class or first class seat, which can be hard to book using partner points and miles.
A fare hold can give you the time to transfer flexible points from banks like American Express, Chase, Citi, Capital One, or Bilt over to the airline program so you have the points to get it booked.
If the airline allows award holds, you almost always have to call the airline and speak to an agent to hold your award space. The one exception to this? You guessed it. American Airlines – which offers the exact same free 24-hour hold for award flights as it does for cash flights. (It's also why award space on American's website tends to disappear so quickly.)
But many other airline programs offer award fare holds – sometimes for free and sometimes for a small fee:
- Air France/KLM Flying Blue – Up to three days for free – no booking fees, according to their website!
- All Nippon Airways (ANA) – Up to two days for free – but only if you have the necessary points in your account, according to reporting from AwardWallet.
- Cathay Pacific Asia Miles – Up to 48 for free on Cathay tickets, but it can be a pain (for other holds, cost varies by ticket, according to Cathay's website)
- Emirates Skywards – Up to 48 hours free.
- EVA Air Infinity MileageLands – Up to 72 hours (cost varies by ticket)
- Turkish Airlines Miles & Smiles – Up to two days
- Virgin Atlantic FlyingClub – Up to 48 hours for free.
Bottom Line
A “fare hold” can help you lock in the price you want without having to pay right away, and it's a smart strategy for booking flights to help you get the best rate, even if you're not ready to pay.
American Airlines is the cream of the crop, allowing you 24 hours (or more) of a hold in addition to the 24-hour free cancellation rule that's federally mandated. But other airlines offer holds on award tickets, too, giving you the chance to secure hard-to-book award space without paying up right away.
