Airline Changed My Flight Time: Refunds and Your Rights

If your airline changed your flight time, you can often turn the new flight down and get your money back, not a voucher. Whether you can depends on where you're flying and how big the change is.

• US flights: a cash refund is due if the new departure is 3 or more hours earlier, or the new arrival 3 or more hours later, on a domestic trip, or 6 hours either way on an international one, and you don't accept the new flight. A new airport, an extra connection or a lower cabin also count.
• EU flights: a departure moved more than 1 hour earlier, or a switch to a different scheduled flight, counts as a cancellation. You choose between a refund and another flight, and if you were told less than 14 days before departure you may also be owed €250 to €600.

Below are the exact rules, with links to the official texts, and a short routine for spotting a change before it costs you a connection or a hotel night.

Disclosure: we make NomadPoint, a trip planner for iPhone. The rules below come from the US Department of Transportation's rule and the European Commission's Your Europe site, both checked on 4 November 2026. This is a summary, not legal advice.

US flights: when a changed flight means a refund

The US Department of Transportation's refund rule, published on 26 April 2024 as 14 CFR part 260, sets out when a schedule change is big enough to earn a refund. Airlines had until 28 October 2024 to start following the refund parts. The rule calls it a "significant change of flight itinerary". It means that, as a result of the airline's change:

1. You depart 3 hours or more earlier than planned on a domestic itinerary, or 6 hours or more earlier on an international one.
2. You arrive 3 hours or more later than planned on a domestic itinerary, or 6 hours or more later on an international one.
3. You depart from or arrive at a different airport.
4. Your itinerary has more connections than before.
5. You're moved to a lower class of service.
6. For a traveler with a disability, the trip goes through different connecting airports, or the new aircraft lacks an accessibility feature they need.

If any of these happened and you turn down the new flight and any voucher or credit the airline offers, the airline owes you a refund of the fare, including taxes and mandatory carrier fees. The rule says the refund goes back to the original form of payment unless you agree to something else. It also has to be prompt: within 7 business days for credit card purchases and 20 calendar days for other payment types.

Two details that trip people up:

• The clock is per trip type, not per flight. A 2-hour retiming on a domestic flight isn't significant under the rule. The same 2 hours on a flight to Europe isn't either, because the international threshold is 6 hours. Look at your whole itinerary as booked.
• Don't accept the new flight if you want the money. The refund is due when you reject the changed flight and the alternatives. If you accept a voucher or the new flight, you've usually used up that choice. Some airlines also set a response deadline and treat silence as a rejection, which the rule allows.

A change under the thresholds doesn't mean you're stuck. Many airlines let you switch to another flight for free after a schedule change, but that comes from the airline's own policy, so check your airline's conditions of carriage or its schedule change page.

EU flights: a retimed flight can count as a cancellation

EU air passenger rights apply to flights within the EU, to flights leaving the EU on any airline, and to flights arriving in the EU on an EU airline, according to the European Commission's Your Europe page. The same rules cover flights to and from Iceland, Norway and Switzerland.

The page lists when a change counts as a cancellation. Two cases cover most schedule changes:

• Your "original flight schedule is abandoned, and you are transferred to another scheduled flight".
• "The departure time of your flight is brought forward by more than 1 hour."

When it's a cancellation, the airline has to offer you a choice: a refund of your ticket, re-routing to your destination at the earliest opportunity, or re-routing at a later date that suits you. Once you pick one, you no longer have rights to the other two, so decide before you reply. You're also entitled to assistance at the airport.

When you're also owed compensation

On top of the refund or new flight, you can claim fixed compensation if you were told about the cancellation less than 14 days before departure. The amounts on the Your Europe page are:

You're not owed compensation in these cases, per the same page:

• You were told more than 14 days before departure.
• You were told 7 to 14 days before, and offered a flight leaving no more than 2 hours earlier and arriving less than 4 hours later than the original.
• You were told less than 7 days before, and offered a flight leaving no more than 1 hour earlier and arriving less than 2 hours later.
• The airline can prove the cancellation came from extraordinary circumstances that couldn't have been avoided.

The airline has to prove when it told you. If an email went to a travel agent and never reached you, that matters, so keep the date you actually heard.

How to spot a schedule change before it costs you

Schedule changes often arrive as a plain email with a subject like "Your itinerary has changed". If you booked through a travel agent or an online travel site, the email may go to them first, or come late. Then the first sign can be the departure board at the airport.

A short routine catches most of them:

1. Put the airline's own app on your phone and turn on its notifications. It's the first place a change shows up, before any third-party app.
2. Open the booking on the airline's site about a week before you fly, then again two days before. Check the flight numbers and times against what you booked.
3. When a change lands, compare old and new times against the thresholds above before you tap "accept". Screenshot both versions.
4. Check what the new time breaks. A flight 4 hours later might mean you miss a connection, a train, or the first night of a hotel you've paid for. A refund on the flight doesn't cover those.
5. Use a flight tracker for the days around departure. Day-of delays and gate changes are where trackers do their best work.

Step 4 is the easiest to skip, and it's the problem NomadPoint is built around. Your flights, stays and activities sit on one timeline for the whole journey, so a missing night or an unbooked leg shows up as a gap you can see. The planner is free. NomadPoint Pro adds flight delay, gate and cancellation alerts and a Live Activity on your lock screen on travel days, for $47.99 a year or $7.99 a month in the US. It runs on iPhone, iPad, Mac and Apple Watch, with no Android app.

Other apps that alert on flight changes, from their own pages checked today:

• Flighty: the pricing page promises Pro alerts "for delays, gates, and changes", at $4.99 a month or $59.99 a year. See our list of Flighty alternatives.
• TripIt Pro: $49 a year, with "real-time flight alerts throughout your trip" and risk alerts for potential disruptions. See NomadPoint vs TripIt.

None of these apps can accept or reject a change for you, and none of them changes your legal rights. They just make sure you hear about the change while you still have options.

For keeping everything about a trip in one place, see our guide to the best app to organize a travel itinerary. If your trip has several stops, a changed flight affects every leg after it, and our multi-city trip planner guide covers how to plan around that.

Frequently asked questions

Can I cancel my flight if the airline changed the time?

In the US, yes, with a full refund, if the change is significant: 3 hours or more on a domestic itinerary, 6 hours or more on an international one, or a change of airport, an extra connection or a downgrade. In the EU, a move to a different scheduled flight or a departure more than 1 hour earlier counts as a cancellation, and you can choose a refund.

Do I get a refund or a voucher?

Under the US rule, the refund goes to your original form of payment unless you agree to take something else. So you can turn down a voucher. Under EU rules, the refund is one of the choices the airline must offer when a flight is cancelled.

Am I owed compensation if my flight time changed?

On EU-covered flights you may be, if the change counts as a cancellation and you were told less than 14 days before departure. It's €250, €400 or €600 depending on distance, and less or nothing if the airline offered a flight close to your original times. The US refund rule covers getting your fare back, not extra compensation.

What if I already accepted the new flight time?

Under the US rule the refund is due when you reject the changed flight, so accepting it usually ends that option. Contact the airline anyway if the change was significant and you accepted by mistake. Some airlines allow a free change afterward under their own policies.

How do I know if my flight time changed?

The airline emails you and shows it in its app. If you booked through a third party, check the booking on the airline's own site too. A flight tracker or trip planner with alerts helps on travel days.

See your whole trip, and what a change breaks. NomadPoint keeps flights, stays and activities on one timeline and shows the gaps. The planner is free on iPhone, iPad and Mac. Pro adds flight alerts.

Download NomadPoint on the App Store