American Airlines has updated its flight change fee waiver policy as the coronavirus pandemic continues to cause disruption to travel around the world.
Any ticket purchased from March 1 at 1630 CT through April 30, 2020 at 2359 CT will not incur fees if changed prior to travel.
For tickets booked before this time for travel before May 31, 2020, flights can be rebooked for travel before December 31, 2020 or to within one year of the original date, whichever is earlier.
Additional fare differences will be charged, and the change can only be made once.
Passengers can alternatively cancel their trip and rebook at a later date. A ticket number will be emailed to them, which must be kept and quoted when calling to rebook.
Eligible passengers will see ‘change trip’ or ‘cancel trip’ options when logged in here.
American Airlines is seeking $12 billion (£9.7 billion) in state aid to help it stay afloat.
It said this would mean “no involuntary furloughs or cuts in pay rates or benefits for the next six months”.
A $2 trillion stimulus bill passed in the US last week includes $58 billion in loans and loan guarantees for passenger airlines and cargo carriers.
United and Delta both released hugely reduced international schedules for April yesterday.
Figures show that just 180,002 people passed through TSA checkpoints on March 29, down from 2,510,294 on March 29 last year.
The UK government has told airlines they will only receive financial support as “a last resort”, and that decisions will be taken on a “case-by-case” basis.
Virgin Atlantic and Scottish regional carrier Loganair are both expected to approach the Treasury to discuss financial aid this week.
