American Airlines Joins Other Carriers in Permanently Eliminating Change Fees

American Airlines on Monday said that it would be permanently eliminating change fees for all of its domestic and short-haul international flights for its premium cabin and most main cabin tickets, one of three major carriers to announce the policy within 48-hours.

American’s announcement came shortly after United announced the same thing on Sunday afternoon and around the same time that Delta Air Lines made the announcement on Monday. All three carriers have moved to give travelers more flexibility in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“In a world that’s constantly changing, American is resolute to our purpose of caring for customers at all points of their travel journey,” American’s Chief Revenue Officer Vasu Raja said. “American is offering more flexibility and east than ever before, should travel plans change.”

Travelers will still have to pay the fare difference, if there is any, and if a flyer changes a booking to a ticket on a cheaper flight, American said it will give the difference back to the flyer in the form of a voucher.

Starting Oct. 1, American, like both United and Delta, also said it would start allowing its travelers to fly standby on the same day for free regardless of the ticket purchased. It also said that for its basic economy tickets it will begin to offer upgrades, priority boarding, preferred/main cabin extra seats, and same-day confirmed flight changes for an extra fee.