And you can still change a nonrefundable ticket to a different flight outside that three-hour window for a fee, in most cases $100 (plus any fare difference).
Southwest does not charge passengers a fee to change a ticket and never will, said Brad Hawkins, a Southwest spokesman (though it does charge any fare difference).
Orbitz.com recently introduced an airfare savings tracker called Orbitz Price Assurance, designed to automatically refund customers who book on the site the fare difference if another Orbitz customer books the same airline ticket for less.
CheapAir.com HOW IT WORKS This airfare booking site has a Price Drop Payback program, which reimburses customers the fare difference if they find a lower rate for the same coach ticket on the site before their trip.
"I see with Delta, sometimes the fare difference between first and coach is not that much, certainly not as much as it used to be," said Mr. Catlette, who flies mostly on Delta out of Memphis.
Eight weeks later, Northwest Airlines (a partner of KLM) credited my Visa account with $105, explaining that their calculation of the fare difference for a refund is based on an internal formula, unrelated to the relative price of the fares at the date of purchase.
Under the old rules, passengers could board a later flight if they paid a change fee and any fare difference, or received credit for the unused portion of the original ticket that they could apply toward another ticket within a year.
Philippine Airlines, which last week launched the first direct flight from the UK to the Philippines in over 15 years, said: "PAL /PALex passengers with flights to typhoon-affected areas may rebook their flights within the next 30 days from the original flight date, with rebooking fees and fare difference waived".
Southwest doesn't do that -- you'll only pay the fare difference, if there is one.
