Airfare Price Drop After You Book? Here’s How to Get the Difference Back

Have you ever purchased a plane ticket only to find the airfare then drops? Several airlines will let you recapture that difference instead of just losing it.

How it works, by airline

• Southwest will give you a voucher for the fare difference if the price drops on the same flight after you’ve booked — with no change fee, since Southwest never charges one.
• United lets you rebook most standard fares (Economy and above — Basic Economy is excluded) to a lower price on the same flight, with the difference issued as a future flight credit. As of 2026 there’s no change fee for this on eligible fares — a real improvement from a few years ago, when United charged a flat fee per ticket that could wipe out a small fare drop entirely.
• Other airlines vary a lot on this, and policies change, so it’s always worth asking even if you don’t see it advertised.

How to actually check and claim it

1. Track your own booked flight’s price after purchase — Google Flights lets you watch a specific route and will flag a drop; some third-party tools will actively monitor a booked itinerary for you.
2. You have to call the airline directly to claim it — it’s not automatic.
3. If you booked through a travel agent, the agent has to be the one to contact the airline on your behalf — you generally can’t do it yourself.
4. Whatever credit you receive typically expires around one year from issuance, so keep track of it and use it before it’s gone.

A quick example

Say you book a $400 United fare, and two weeks later the same flight is selling for $310. Call United, ask them to reprice your ticket to the current fare, and they’ll reissue it for the lower amount and hand you a $90 future flight credit — usable on any future United booking, not just the same route. On Southwest, the process is similar but even simpler: in many cases you can cancel and rebook the same itinerary at the lower price yourself through Southwest’s site or app, and the fare difference lands back in your account as travel funds without needing to call in.

It only takes a few minutes to check whether your fare dropped, and airlines won’t proactively tell you — so it’s worth building the habit of glancing back at a booking a week or two after you’ve made it.