The federal government now requires airlines to let customers get a refund if they change your flight 3 hours or more. Most airlines used to be more generous than that – now they’re not.

American Airlines, though, was forced to reduce their requirement from 4 hours to 3 hours. They never reverted to their more generous policies from before the pandemic.

One way that American was generous, though, is that if there was any schedule change at all you could make a change to your flights without charge.

• The app and other self-service methods required a change of at least 15 minutes
  
• But you could usually call reservations and ask for your desired flights with any time change at all.

That’s no longer the case. Earlier this month American Airlines cracked down on their reservations agents making changes to passenger itineraries for free when the schedule change was less than 15 minutes. That actually seems fair but as a passenger it’s still disappointing.

Here’s the internal memo about this change:

11DEC24

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Reservations Travel Professionals

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Effective today, there is a new minor Schedule Change policy. This aligns our policy to be the same for Reservations as it is in Digital channels.

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The following policy changes will apply to minor Schedule Changes:

• Schedule Change impacting departure or arrival time is 15 minutes or less
  • If the change is 15 minutes or less, it will be treated as a voluntary change subject to regular fare rules

• Expections:
  • If the flight number changes and the impact is 15 minutes or less, the passenger will be eligible for one free change, in line with guidelines for a 16-60 minute Schedule Change, or a full refund in accordance with the DOT Mandate
  • Cumulative Schedule Change Impact
    • If there are multiple Schedule Changes and the total cumulative time difference between the original and new departure or arrival time exceeds 15 minutes the passenger is eligible for the applicable guidelines based on the total time difference

  “I noticed that my flight changed to leave five minutes earlier from Raleigh (RDU). Can I make a change to a later flight?”

  “I would be happy to check, schedule changes 15 minutes or less are considered minor changes. What time would you like to leave so that I can see if there is any fare difference.“

Still, it’s useful to know – most passengers do not! – that a schedule change of 16 minutes is enough to let you change flights if you prefer to fly a different one!