Major U.S. airlines have agreed that when a delay or cancellation forces you to overnight in a city where you do not live, and it’s their fault (mechanical, crew) rather than outside of their control (weather, air traffic control) not only will they provide you with a hotel for the night, if they can’t they will offer compensation. This isn’t always as good or as easy as it sounds.
- You’re going to need to demonstrate that the airline could provide you accommodations. You can’t just say ‘my flight cancelled, I’m stuck for the night see ya’ get yourself a room and send the bill to the airline. You’re going to have to wait to see if the airline can get you a room, and then document that they couldn’t.
- And you’re going to need to get your claim approved. Hopefully your paperwork will be in order and this gets processed in a reasonable amount of time. You’ll also only get what the airline considers reasonable, which United kind of sort of says amounts under $200 will be (American’s doesn’t specify). Delta caps their liability at $100 and only pays out in a voucher for future travel, not cash.
Airlines already generally provided hotel rooms when they get you stuck somewhere overnight. They don’t always have rooms to offer you, leaving you on your own. American used to be clear they wouldn’t reimburse. However,
- The rooms airlines often give you may not be ones you want to stay in. Frequently these will be rooms at less than full service hotels.
- And you may burn a lot of time waiting to get helped to get the room or to find out they can’t help you. There’s progress delivering hotel bookings electronically but those efforts are glitchy and in their early stages at best.
In line for flight info and voucher at #albuquerque airport. Our flight disembarked 2 hours ago. Just 1 service person. Help @AmericanAir I’ve been here for hours #stuckintheairport pic.twitter.com/34QSwA29lq
— Allie Plihal (@allie_plihal) September 1, 2022
So you want in line, maybe for an hour, burning time you could have been sleeping only to get a room you wouldn’t want to stay in. I’ve always preferred just leaving the airport and going to my preferred hotel and sending the bill to my credit card company which is likely to reimburse up to $500 in lodging, meal and transportation costs.
Not every card does this but I choose the card I use to buy airfare carefully. Technically these benefits are usually secondary and you aren’t supposed to be able to double dip. So if the airline is offering to cover lodging then you shouldn’t be able to seek reimbursement.
Hopefully these new customer commitments do not lead to a bunch of denied credit card benefit claims, effectively limiting the benefit to weather-related events or at least going through the claims process with an airline before seeking reimbursement from your card (within the card coverage provider’s allowable timeframe). Essentially insurers might presumptively deny claims when the underlying issue is the fault of the airline, because the carrier committed to either provide or reimburse lodging. They could require proof that the airline did not, or refused reimbursement, prior to honoring the claim.
Offering rooms when the airline is at fault isn’t new. Reimbursing rooms when the airline can’t get you one may be. However for those of us in the know on credit card trip delay coverage, these airline policy changes under threat by DOT may wind up being a real negative.
Airlines can book you at any number of hotels, some good, some bad. Ask for a specific hotel when you get to the service desk. Check the hotel’s own website first to make sure rooms are available. The airline might not be able to book it but it’s worth a shot.
If Biden had sense, he’d outlaw all hotels that are not in the Hilton, Marriott, Hyatt, or IHG brands. Outside these brands, I have found hotels have major problems, making them unfit for even a one night stay. Our country is morally wrong to allow such awful hotels to take peoples money and provide them with inhumane accommodations.
I’m already being generous including IHG in the allowlist. Several of their lower end properties need immediate deflags with their owners, GMs, and even front office staff, beaten with a stick in public.
Just leave it to Pete to make rules that sound good. Gary you are spot on.
@Mrlasssen, homophobic much?
It’s what you’d expect from a government program:
– sounds good
– one size fits all
– poorly thought out
– poorly worded (creates wiggle room)
– makes those in the know worse off
@Gary-Any idea why/how AA’s automatic, electronic hotel voucher system has seemingly disappeared? It worked seamlessly for me via the AA app multiple times in 2018/2019, yet the three times in 2021/2022 when I have had an overnight disruption, all pax have been required to wait in the endless line to be processed.
The wiggle room is concerning to me. This seems to only be a pinky promise by US carriers, not an actual rule. Who knows how it will work when flying a UA code share on Air Canada, or flying British or Qatar internationally from a US airport.
I’m from the government and I’m here to help.
Help ruin everything
The fact that DoT needed to do something on this issue shows how badly US airlines have dealt with it. A few year ago, my connecting flight from HKG was cancelled due to the approaching typhoon (not even the airline’s fault). CX put me in a nice downtown hotel (cost at least $400+ a night) with meals and ground transportation covered (plus some cash for miscellaneous spending).
The top 1% whines that all voters get to have the same treatment that they have bee enjoying, doesn’t feel special anymore.
This is from a seller of $400+/year credit cards to the top 1%.
The AA automatic hotel and voucher program worked for me a couple of weeks ago. And they gave me the Hyatt regency, and I got Hyatt points for it. I was very happy with the room.
@Actual Statistician
I imagine he was just pointing out Pete’s incompetence at his job. Or his last job. In fact, Pete’s a pretty sorry excuse for a politician – given his intellectual inferiority.
And I don’t care if he goes to bed with an eggplant. He’s still a schmuck.
Long as they are not allowed to put you in a junk motel then I’d rather the airlines pay.
Wonder how often the airlines will pull the weather or ATC excuse because it impacted the inbound plane or crew from 2-3 cities earlier in the day….
As a rule I have little expectation that any airline will put me in a decent hotel since it has always been hit or miss. A few years ago during some summer ORD meltdown, the Delta rep let me know that I really did not want to stay in any hotel she could offer. I appreciated the honesty
As it stands, even getting your credit card to reimburse your extra expenses caused by any airline issue, is a stretch. I have not had one reimbursed yet! This is more about the pimping of credit cards and their so-called benefits than actually losing that benefit.
FWIW in my experience, card benefit administrators have been much less demanding with respect to lodging costs than luggage/necessity reimbursement. A priori, I’d be more concerned with the impact on luggage delay reimbursement than lodging reimbursement, though it’s certainly possible that both may be affected.
I am pretty sure if airlines will be giving you hotel vouchers the claims with credit card companies will be denied. Also, to keep in mind what actually is a valid claim. For example, the Amex platinum covers only the following:
Covered Losses include Covered Trip delays that result from the following:
1. Inclement weather, which prevents a reasonable and prudent person from traveling or continuing on a Covered Trip (e.g. severe weather that delays the scheduled arrival or departure of a Common Carrier);
2. Terrorist Action or hijacking;
3. A Common Carrier’s equipment failure, as documented by the Common Carrier;or
4. Lost or stolen passports or travel documents.
As you can see delays because of the operational issues are not covered.