When your flight is cancelled and you’re stuck somewhere overnight, the airline might give you a hotel room for the night. It frequently depends on whether the delay is ‘their fault’ – for instance, the plane had a mechanical problem, or they didn’t have pilots or flight attendants available to work the flight – or whether they consider the issue beyond their control such as weather or air traffic control issues.
If they give you a room, it’s often after a long wait to get it, eating into the time you’re able to sleep. Even airlines that will provide you a room automatically through their app may not have any rooms available (at their discount rate) to provide you. And the room you get may not be the kind of place you want to sleep.
Here’s a room that an American Airlines passenger found themselves in after a flight delay caused them to miss their connection and they were stuck overnight: “a dump of a hotel with worms and broken locks.”
Hey @AmericanAir you delay my flight 2 hours, lie about the reason, make me miss my connection, put me in a dump of a hotel with worms and broken locks, and expect me to be ok with it? I’ll await your reply. pic.twitter.com/o13sTTtBWU
— Jared Brown (@jaredb6061) April 29, 2024
What’s more, this is actually very common. And airlines will keep using the same hotels, even after conditions like this are reported. While they may outsource distressed passenger hotel inventory, they should be aware of conditions at airport hotels in their hub cities.
@AmericanAir repeatedly delayed our flight until they finally pushed us to the next day. Then, THIS is the hotel they gave us a voucher to stay in. Do you honestly think this is okay? #americanairlines #airlines #Flights pic.twitter.com/PKws6RvwCa
— Laura Mzhickteno (@SimpliLaura) September 27, 2023
— Christopher Montgomery (@MontyTweets1212) July 6, 2023
This is not just a U.S. airline issue. Air Canada has sent a man and a woman, who didn’t know each other, to a hotel to share a room. And in China, Hainan Airlines put passengers up in an S&M-themed hotel.
If you are in a position to do so, consider taking matters into your own hands even at your potential expense (though there are ways of minimizing the expense). If you rely on the airline for accommodation, you’re likely to wind up somewhere that you really do not want to stay. And it may take a significant amount of time to get even that – taking away from the limited time you may have for rest before returning to the airport for an early flight the next day. So what do you do instead?
- Rely on your credit card coverage. Pay for your ticket with a credit card that offers trip delay coverage, book your own room and save receipts for it, along with ground transportation and meals. If the airline is offering you a room that could obviate coverage. But you’re assured the property you are comfortable staying in. You won’t wait. And you can look farther afield if need be. Sure, airport hotels might well all be booked. But if you aren’t spending an hour in line to get the room is a 20 minute drive away from the airport (also billed to trip delay coverage) so bad?
Some readers might say that ‘you’re obligated to minimize the insurer’s loss, and foregoing a room offered by the airline fails to do that and obviates coverage’. I do not believe you are obligated to take any room, of any quality offered. And I have never seen coverage denied for this when claimed properly.
- Request a distressed passenger rate. If you don’t have credit card trip delay coverage, and you can’t find a good rate on your own that you’re willing to pay, one alternative to the long line may be the baggage office. Ask there about distressed passenger rates for hotels. If the line is long at your airline’s baggage office, or it isn’t staffed, be friendly and ask at another airline’s baggage office.
- Use points. Airline hotels often are great deals on points, with reward costs based on a hotel’s average daily rate which tends to be brought down by large airline contracts for housing crew. A few thousand points from your stash can get you a far better night’s sleep, more quickly, than relying on the airline.
The Department of Transportation has a consumer dashboard showing customer service policies, including a commitment to put you in a hotel when you’re stuck overnight due to a controllable delay or cancellation. That dashboard says nothing about the quality of the room you’ll receive.
Airlines may give you a free room but then you get what you pay for – you probably don’t want to sleep in the room they’re going to give you. There are exceptions, but it can be very much worth venturing off on your own rather than rolling the dice on free.
I purchased tickets on Delta from San Diego to Miami round trip, and used a platinum certificate for an upgrade to first class. By the way, it is extremely difficult to use the upgrade certificates because there are very limited flights that you can use them on. . I received an email from Delta that there was a scheduled change on our way home through Salt Lake. We would not be able to make the flight in time for the connection. When I called to rebook our flight home, I was shocked to find out, we are on a waitlist for first class coming home even though the first class is wide open!!! We were booked in first using our upgrade before Delta made the schedule change. It’s not our fault Delta made the change. I can’t believe they are not putting us in first class.
Many years ago I stayed in a couple of hotels airlines provided. This was in the 1990s and they were a lot more generous (especially for elite flyers) so even weather delays that caused an overnight stay typically got a room offer. However, I had a couple of experiences where we were bussed quite a few miles to an older property (more a motel) with outside doors and questionable customers hanging around or, even worse, given a room at a nicer airport hotel in Philly where I was promptly told they didn’t have rooms and airline should have known so I was walked to a run down motel with chain link fence and razor wire around the parking lot and the receptionist behind a bullet proof glass shield.
After these experiences I always get my own hotel and don’t regret it. Frankly, I’ve never even turned in a claim with my credit cards for the room. I can afford it with points or cash and feel a lot better knowing I have a nicer place waiting and won’t have to deal with lines or the random hotel an airline may pick.
IMHO if you can afford an airline ticket you can obviously afford to pay for a hotel room and a couple of meals.
@tomandersonpecua this sounds like your RUC wasn’t reticketed by delta. These days I always insist the agent send the PNR for ticketing as that’s when delta treats you as a real first class passenger as opposed to someone with an economy ticket with an upgrade cert
Comp hotels depend of where you are , and which airline . FRA and LHR and NRT have good comp hotels . Newark or Atlanta not so much . The worst I ever encountered was in Tehran ; the room was OK , but the hotel charged me again for cash on top of the voucher , under threat of me being a punching bag . I paid willingly , and later complained without result to the airline .
The quality of the hotels being provided by US airlines to IRROPS-hit passengers has taken a nose-dive in the past 25 years. And that’s even as the options at US airport hotels have actually gotten more plentiful and there are better options than there used to be for those paying for their own airport hotel rooms.
Last year and earlier this year, SAS tried to dump me in some bad hotels after arriving late into the US. I tossed the vouchers and made my own way for the nights.
Gary, can you give us some suggestions on the credit cards that offer the trip delay coverage?
Tom cool story bro. What’s that have to do with hotel vouchers from airlines?
Also want to add that Delta will reimburse after the fact for a reasonable priced room. Amount varies by market but sounds like $250ish might be the cap. Submit receipt and they send payment right away. Multiple reports on FlyerTalk about this.
I buy insurance at the time if booking that covers a lot of issues that could arise.
Sitting in the IAH Polaris lounge. Get an email from United saying their flight to Santiago was delayed until tomorrow morning. Not cancelled, just delay for 12 hours, go figure.
Enjoyed the lounge until it closed or I closed, can’t remember. Walked over to the airport Marriott, checked in, paid, and flew on to SCL.
While on the flight, created a flight delay claim with Allianz (my annual policy), attached the hotel receipt. The check was waiting for me when I got home. Screw the airlines.
What a waste of time. Can this article be less original?
@GU and @Mark … +1 .
Just get travel insurance and stay just about anywhere you want to! Try Allianz…it’s only about $138 a year and pays for itself after one night in a hotel…
@John – Chase Sapphire Preferred has good coverage, including award trips as long as you use the card to pay the taxes for the award ticket.
Which credit card paid for this article? Must have been paid well to spend 5 minutes pulling this common sense piece together.
@Leo – do you even see a link to a credit card in the piece?
Say what you will about S&M themed or adult-oriented hotels, but I’ll guarantee you the Executive Airport Hotel at MIA (you know the one, by the Dolphin Expressway just before the Doubletree) is a lot cleaner than most places. Anything you can hose off with bleach….
Once upon a time AA would book EXPs at the DFW Grand Hyatt and GH once gave me the presidential suite for the night on an airline comped booking that probably made them less than $50.
In late may I will have a very tight connection at SEA after a long flight from MIA. Hope to catch the latest night flight on to PDX and using a reward ticket on Alaska.
Given that using a reward tik does anyone think I will be given a room by the airline if it is impossible to get the flight to pdx and I am stuck in SEA that night?
I was on Delta and stuck overnight at EWR due to a mechanical and Delta outsources their hotel bookings to a third party company. They wanted to send us to a hotel 45 minutes away and I chose the EWR Marriott using points and money, Delta reimbursed me for the room and granted my request for equivalent Delta miles for the Marriott miles I used for the reservation. I’ve been burned too many times so I’m happy to pay for a clean and safe near the airport.
Kiwi could you expand on the PNR please?
I have gone allianz for the year
My annual travel insurance handles everything, including expanded coverages and medical/repatriation that are much better than my credit card.
I get paid for the delay, no baggage, hotel and expenses. Plus all of the extra med stuff if needed.
@george – Possibly. AA has helped me out in similar circumstances.