How to Hold a Flight Without Paying (Fare Locks and Airline Holds)

If you have found a fare but cannot commit yet, a hold keeps a seat at today’s fare without buying the ticket. A few airlines do it free for 24 hours, some charge a small deposit or fee to hold for up to 15 days, and many US airlines offer free 24-hour cancellation instead. This page lists the airlines that hold fares, the steps to place a hold and how to stack one with the 24-hour rule.

Can you hold a flight without paying?

Yes, on some airlines and for a short time. Airlines flying to, from or within the US must give you one of two protections when you book at least 7 days before departure, and the Department of Transportation confirms an airline does not have to offer both.

Many airlines meet the rule with free 24-hour cancellation, so you buy first and cancel within a day if you change your mind. Delta works that way online: Risk-Free Cancellation refunds a ticket cancelled within 24 hours of purchase, and there is no hold button. The choice matters if you would rather not charge a card yet: a free hold takes no money, while a cancellation hands back money already paid.

Which airlines let you hold a flight?

These 5 airlines publish a way to keep a fare without buying the ticket on the spot. American and Emirates hold free online, British Airways and Turkish Airlines charge a deposit or fee, and Delta’s hold works only by phone.

Airline	Cost	How long	Limits	If you do not pay
American	Free	Up to 24 hours	Select flights, booked 7+ days before departure	Trip cancels automatically
Emirates	Free	24 hours	Economy only; not from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Greece, Japan or Mexico	Hold ends; the price is no longer kept
British Airways	$5 short-haul or $10 long-haul deposit per person, refunded once you pay	Up to 72 hours	Selected BA and Iberia flights on ba.com, 21+ days before travel	Deposit forfeited
Turkish Airlines	A fee, refunded if you buy in time	1 to 15 days	Paid add-on	Fee kept
Delta	No hold fee listed	Fare guaranteed 24 hours	Phone bookings paid in cash at a Delta ticketing location	Reservation cancels

American: free hold for up to 24 hours

On select flights, American lets you hold a trip free for up to 24 hours if you book at least 7 days before departure. If you do not pay within 24 hours, the trip cancels automatically. When you pay, travel credits and seat coupons have to be applied again, and trip insurance picked during the hold is not saved. American allows 1 hold per destination and timeframe and cancels duplicates.

Emirates: free 24 hours on Economy

Emirates’ Hold My Fare reserves an Economy fare for 24 hours at no charge, and the price will not rise before you pay. It is not offered on departures from 6 countries, including Brazil, Japan and Mexico.

British Airways: 72 hours for a refundable deposit

British Airways holds the flights and the price for up to 72 hours on selected British Airways and Iberia flights booked on ba.com at least 21 days before travel. The deposit is $5 per person on short-haul and $10 on long-haul. It is refunded as a separate transaction within 21 days once you pay, and forfeited if you do not. Avios bookings and holiday packages are excluded, and so are departures from several countries, including India, Mexico, Egypt, Nigeria, Pakistan and some Caribbean nations.

Turkish Airlines: paid holds of up to 15 days

Turkish Airlines sells Hold the Price as an add-on once you have picked flights, with hold periods of 1 to 3 days, 7 days or 15 days. The fee comes back if you buy the ticket before the hold ends, and Turkish keeps it if you do not.

Delta: a phone hold for cash payment

Delta has no online hold. Book by phone to pay cash and Delta guarantees the fare for 24 hours. Buy the ticket at a Delta ticketing location by midnight the following day, or the reservation cancels. These tickets are not eligible for Risk-Free Cancellation.

How to hold a flight, step by step

Most holds are options inside the airline’s own checkout, and each comes with conditions you have to meet first.

Placing a hold

1. Check the date: book at least 7 days before departure for American’s free hold, and at least 21 days before travel for British Airways.
2. Search on the airline’s own website, since the British Airways hold works only on ba.com.
3. Choose the hold option at checkout instead of paying, or add Turkish Airlines’ Hold the Price after picking flights.
4. Write down the exact expiry time and its time zone, and set a reminder an hour before it.
5. Hold each trip once: American cancels duplicate holds for the same destination and timeframe.
6. Pay before the hold expires, applying any travel credits or seat coupons again and adding trip insurance if you want it.

Stack a hold with the 24-hour rule

A free hold and the 24-hour refund run one after the other. On American, the refund clock starts when you pay, not when you place the hold: tickets bought at least 7 days before departure can be cancelled for a refund within 24 hours of purchase. Hold a fare at 9:00 pm on a Monday, pay at 8:30 pm on Tuesday, and you can still cancel for a full refund until 8:30 pm on Wednesday, close to 48 hours with nothing lost. Start at least 8 days before departure so the purchase also lands 7 or more days out.

British Airways allows the same stack on a longer hold. For flights bought from the US more than a week before departure, tell BA within 24 hours of paying that you are cancelling, and you get back both the fare and the hold deposit. That keeps a fare risk-free for up to 96 hours.

Example fares, October 2026 search: 2 travelers, New York JFK to London Heathrow round trip in March 2027, waiting on 1 traveler’s leave approval.

When	What happens	Money out
Thu 22 Oct, 8:00 pm	Fare is $684 per person; hold placed on ba.com	$20 deposit ($10 x 2, long-haul)
Sun 25 Oct, 7:30 pm	Leave approved, 30 minutes before the 72-hour hold ends; tickets bought	$1,368
Mon 26 Oct, 7:30 pm	Last moment to cancel for a refund of the fares and the deposit	$0 if cancelled

Result: the 2 travelers had about 95 hours to back out of the $684 fare, and the most they could have lost was the $20 deposit. If the trip goes ahead, the deposit comes back as a separate refund within 21 days of paying.

Fare locks: paying to keep a price for days

A fare lock is a paid hold: you pay a fee to freeze the price for a set number of days, then buy at that price or walk away. Before paying, check how long it lasts, whether the fee comes back or counts toward the fare, and what happens to the fee if you do not buy.

Beyond Turkish Airlines and British Airways, other airlines sell paid holds under their own names, such as Air India’s Fare Lock, so check the airline’s extras or add-ons page during booking. Travel apps can sell their own version: Hopper sells Price Freeze only in the Hopper app, and a freeze bought there is a Hopper product, not an airline hold.

Is a fare lock worth it?

A paid hold makes sense when the fare is one you would buy today, you will know your answer before the hold ends, and the fee is small next to what a price rise would cost you. A fee that comes back when you buy, as Turkish Airlines’ fee and British Airways’ deposit do, costs nothing if you go ahead.

Put a number on it. If a $684 fare could plausibly rise $100 before you decide and you put the odds at 1 in 3, the expected rise is about $33, so a non-refundable lock costing more than that is a poor bet.

Option	Cost	How long the price is safe	Best for
Free airline hold	$0	Up to 24 hours (American, Emirates)	Checking dates with someone overnight
Deposit hold	$5 or $10 per person, back when you pay	Up to 72 hours (British Airways)	Waiting on leave approval or a partner’s dates
Paid fare lock	A fee, refunded by Turkish Airlines if you buy	Up to 15 days (Turkish Airlines)	A decision more than 3 days away
Buy, then cancel within 24 hours	$0 if cancelled in time, but the card is charged first	24 hours after purchase, 7+ days before departure	Any direct booking on an airline without a hold
Refundable fare	Often a higher fare	Until departure	Plans that could change for weeks

When the doubt lasts weeks rather than days, a refundable fare does what a hold cannot: it is a real ticket you can cancel before departure for your money back, often at a higher price than the standard fare on the same flight. If the reason to wait is payday rather than a decision, paying for the flight later is the other route: American accepts Affirm for flights on aa.com, so you buy the ticket at today’s fare and spread the cost at 0% to 36% APR, depending on credit.

Holding a flight for a visa or proof of travel

Some travelers look for a hold because a visa application or a check-in desk wants to see a flight booking. Airline holds fit that job badly: the free and deposit holds end within 24 to 72 hours, and an unpaid reservation cancels when its hold ends, often long before an appointment or a departure date.

When you need proof of a booking rather than a locked price, you can choose between an airline hold and a reservation from an onward ticket service. An airline hold is the better fit when you might fly that itinerary, since paying turns it into a ticket at the held fare. When you only need a booking to show, Dummy-Flights.com sells an onward ticket reservation for $15, with a booking reference you can look up on the airline’s site, delivered as a PDF by email. The airline decides how long the reservation stays live, and the confirmation shows the exact expiry time, so buy it close to the date someone will check it.