Which airlines have the best cancellation policies when being on a non refundable?
 

I know Southwest does, but I'm trying to find out about the others and go to their websites, but I'm beyond confused about the wording of things with the "no change fees" and "no cancellation fees" in terms of when you actually have to travel. The only one that I understood was American's. They are making it that even though they are allowing you to change the dates for no extra charge (but has to be on the same route...cannot decided to go say Dublin instead of Buenos Aires), that the trip needs to have been completed within a year of the date you booked the trip. So if I were to book a trip from June 15-July 15 and I book it today 3/24/2020 if I change it, I would have to complete the new trip by 3/24/2021 or I gifted American Airlines my money . This doesn't help me as I don't have a flexible work schedule (I can only take a long trip in June or July...no other month). I was hoping to fly to Europe (anywhere...figured I would take Ryan Air or Easy Jet to get to my destination) from EWR to JFK in the middle of June coming back the middle of July.

What airline is the most flexible on a non refundable ticket in terms of just refunding you, or will change the dates of your trip (same itinerary), but where the trip doesn't need to be completed by the booking date? Are there any airlines that will just allow you to cancel but give you travel credit that can be used towards any itinerary?


I'm assuming I won't be able to go to Europe this summer, but if any airline is flexible enough to assist, I'd like to book due to the prices being lower.

Thank you

Under the current situation, you should assume that whatever airline you book with will only allow you to take a voucher for future travel, valid for a certain amount of time, rather than a refund if the airline cancels the flight. All airline policies are different on this and expect more changes in the coming weeks. There is no clear answer which airlines are (or will be) more generous or flexible in the future. There is also a massive capacity cut globally, in place for at least a month. What happens after we won't know for a few more weeks. I would thus assume a certain amount of disruption, even into the summer. Ryanair and EasyJet do not operate from New York, they only do short haul flights within Europe.