What are flight credits, and how do they work? Discover how to make the most of travel credits when booking your next business flight.
If you manage a team of frequent flyers, or are one yourself, you’ve probably accumulated some travel credits as compensation for disruption.
In 2024 alone, 8 out of 10 business travellers reported some form of travel delays during a work trip. Many regions, such as the EU, offer robust passenger protection for flight delays and cancellations. In others, like the US, it’s up to the discretion of the airline – and when business travellers need to make their own changes to an existing ticket, booking terms may not always permit a cash refund.
In cases like these, flight credits could be offered by airlines in lieu of direct refunds for cancellations and delays. These travel credits can be banked and used to pay for future flights.
What’s important to understand is that each carrier has its own redemption rules and restrictions when it comes to flight credits. And without adequate tracking systems in place, credits can expire before you get a chance to use them.
We’ll cover how airline travel credits work below, as well as give some tips to help you prevent lost value.
Travel credits can be used to cover the cost of hotels or flights. For example, flight credits can be exchanged for future flights up to the full value of the original ticket. They are issued and held with the airline according to its own terms and conditions. That means expiration dates and transferability rules will vary by carrier, which is something to verify before using banked credits for any future business travel bookings.
Unlike reward programmes that allow for things like seat upgrades or other airline rewards, travel credits are attached to the original ticket and fare conditions.
Travel credits are typically issued when passengers are impacted by any type of service disruption and the booking conditions don’t permit a cash refund. Instead, a credit is offered as compensation. In the case of flights, this type of disruption could be caused by things like:
Credits are often proportional to the level of inconvenience. For flight cancellations, you should receive a full-value credit. For shorter delays, you may only receive a proportional portion of the ticket’s value. Some airlines will offer flight credits to make up for inconveniences like lost luggage or poor inflight service.
Flight credits can also be initiated by the passenger. When you cancel the original flight due to changes in business plans, airlines might issue travel credits. Instead of a refund, you can choose to receive credit that can be used towards a substitute booking.
An airline credit is attached to the original ticket number and fare conditions. That means you can only use it to purchase a replacement flight on the same airline or partner network.
Flight credits have expiry dates that usually range from 12 to 24 months, though this will also vary by carrier.
Here are a few of the different approaches to travel credits you might encounter:
Most credits expire within one to two years. A credit’s expiration date will mean one of two things:
Always verify the credit’s terms and conditions to find out which type of expiration date you’re working with. If this isn’t clear on the information you received with your credits, then be sure to confirm this on the airline’s site, or by getting in touch with their customer support team.
If your credits are about to expire and you don’t need the flight credit for immediate business travel, there are a few courses of action to take depending on the airline’s regulations.
Here’s how to use airline credits to purchase business flights.
To start, locate the credit in your online airline account.
Some airlines, like United, have travel credit finders to make it easier. Enter the business traveller’s last name and original booking number to locate any associated flight credits.
Once you’ve found the credit, check the expiration date to find out if it’s a book-by or travel-by deadline. You should also be able to see the credit’s amount and reference number, along with any booking terms and conditions.
Shop for your business travel flight as you normally would, whether it’s directly through the airline website or a platform like Tripeden.com for Business. When using an aggregator, be sure to limit the search to the applicable airline.
You’ll need to sign into the airline account to view flight credits at checkout. From there, you’ll be able to pay with travel credit, and add a separate payment method to cover any remaining balance. And if you don’t have an airline rewards account, you can also enter your travel credit reference number manually.
In most cases, the remaining credit balance will stay in your account, or the airline will reissue the remaining credit with a fresh reference number and expiration date. However, if you’re using a ticket-for-ticket or trip-for-trip type of credit, you will lose any remaining balance.
Before you book, you may want to check that your airline has policies in place around airline credit, as not all of them do.
KLM uses travel vouchers to refund customers for trips that don’t go as planned. They may:
Lufthansa’s Flight Value Vouchers can be used to book future flights and must:
Some other key features of these vouchers include:
From September 2025, British Airways will only offer standard refunds rather than travel credit or flight vouchers. In the case of missed/delayed connecting flights, you’ll be automatically booked onto the next available flight (provided this connecting flight was with British Airways).
Vueling offers Flight Credit for several reasons:
The Flight Credit for this budget airline is only offered if you selected a Flex or ‘Fly Grande’ bundle when you originally booked and is surprisingly flexible, letting you:
However, you can’t combine Flight Credit from different cancellations to reach a higher total.
Turkish Airlines’ Passenger Rights makes no mention of flight credit and outlines:
Customers are advised to get in touch with Turkish Airlines directly to see what can be offered in each circumstance.
If you cancel your United flight or switch to a less expensive one, you may receive Future Flight Credits.
Credits may be used to purchase some non-ticket items, such as Economy Plus seating. However, this must be done at the time of booking rather than as a separate upgrade.
If you’re flying for business on Emirates and are due a refund, you may receive a credit note in the form of an Electronic Miscellaneous Document (EMD), sent to your email address.
Emirates will also exchange credit notes for a cash refund if preferred. Simply fill out the online refund request form.
If you’re a travel manager tasked with ensuring trips stay within budget, you’ll want to find ways to maximise the value of any banked travel credits before they expire. Here are a few tips that can help:
Manually hunting down credits from each carrier is time-consuming and tedious. For businesses with frequent flyers, it’s a good idea to create an organised system to track all credits in one place.
All-in-one travel management solutions give full visibility over flights. For example, Tripeden.com for Business has partnered with Traxo to provide real-time corporate travel data. Companies can view business travel bookings in one place, no matter which platform the employees use to book their flights.
By automatically extracting data from travel confirmation emails, you can create a central database of booking details including travel credits. This should show pertinent information such as:
With 24/7 access to credits, values, and expiration dates, your team can better manage airline travel to prevent letting any credit go to waste.
You can also automate airline ticket tracking within a travel management system. Track each airline ticket from booking to use, so you’ll know if there are any unclaimed tickets that could be eligible for a refund.
To improve compliance, configure your corporate travel policy to apply any unused credits to future bookings. You could also require that business travellers notify travel admins about flight credits and expiration dates as part of standard policy.
Finally, it’s always a good idea to prioritise flexible cancellation policies when booking corporate travel. Choose tickets that allow fee-free changes and cancellations, and when given the choice by the airline, take refunds over credits for maximum flexibility.
With a greater understanding of airline travel credits and their alternatives, you’ll be better able to minimise the financial impact of travel disruption.
Learn about what to look for in an airport business lounge, how to get access to a lounge and how to...
Learn when to rebook flights and when to claim a flight delay refund.
With cheap business flights, you can fly in style for less. Discover our tips for scoring discounted...
