[Help wanted] US DOT 24-hour rule + carrier choice (cancel vs fare hold) for Change Management

[telivity-otaip]

Who this is for

OTA customer-care / policy people and TMC consultants who implement the US DOT 24-hour reservation rule in booking engines. Especially if you've mapped which US carriers offer free cancel vs 24h hold.

Why this hardens the system

Agent 5.1 Change Management surfaces a free-change window concept. The constitution warns against the naive reading:

• carriers may offer 24h free cancellation OR 24h fare hold (not always both)
• only when booked ≥7 days before departure
• US applicability constraints
• channel-specific implementation differences (NDC vs GDS vs airline.com)

Files: packages/agents/exchange/src/change-management/, docs/agents/stage-5-exchange.md, CLAUDE.md Agent 5.1.

What we need

1. A carrier matrix: cancel / hold / unknown, with last-verified date.
2. Applicability checklist (geography, departure window, fare types, basic economy exceptions you've seen).
3. How OTAs usually detect eligibility at booking time vs post-booking.
4. Proposed fields for Agent 5.1 so we stop treating "free change" as a boolean guess.

Acceptance criteria

• KB matrix with sources / verification dates
• Explicit 7-day and cancel-vs-hold nuance
• Agent input/output proposal
• Tests for ineligible cases (e.g. departure inside 7 days)
• No invented carrier policies — mark unknown as unknown

Search keywords

help wanted · US DOT · 24-hour rule · free cancellation · fare hold · OTA · change management · Cat 31

How to contribute

Even one accurately verified carrier row helps. Comment first if you're unsure about licensing of public policy pages.