Airlines generally provide you with a hotel room when they cancel your flight and you’re stuck overnight – if the cancellation is their fault, such as due to lack of crew or mechanical problems with the aircraft. Under pressure from the Department of Transportation, this has been written into Contracts of Carriage.
You may not like the room you get. They promise accommodations, but do not make promises about the quality of those accommodations. Frequently the hotels are quite bad.
@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
While they’re supposed to give you the room. It doesn’t always work out that way, however.
- Sometimes the third party they’ve outsourced this to doesn’t have rooms available
- Sometimes the software fails in providing you a valid voucher to pay for the room
- Sometimes you’re told to go book the room yourself and get reimbursed, and then you have to deal with the airline bureaucracy.
One American Airlines passenger shared what happened when stuck overnight in The Bahamas.
They were scheduled to fly from North Eleuthera Airport in the Bahamas to Charlotte and on to Washington, D.C. The aircraft door wouldn’t close. It took four hours for a mechanic to show up at the airport. This is island time!
The problem was fixed quickly once they had a mechanic, but the crew – which had operated the inbound flight already and was turning straight around – timed out. They exceeded their maximum duty hours, and the flight was cancelled.
It was Saturday night in winter. It was spring break. That’s peak of peak of peak for Bahamas hotels. Some passengers were reportedly found accommodations but inventory ran out. So “they tell us to find our own hotels.”
- “The only hotel was $1300/night and required a taxi from the airport to the dock and then a water taxi. Repeat next day to get back to airport.”
- This really was all that was available – it’s where American Airlines sent their own crew, too.
- The passenger asked whether there was a limit to how much American would reimburse and was “told they didn’t think so.”
Their flight was rescheduled to depart at 8 a.m. the next day but “departed at 1:30 p.m.” Now they’re trying to get their $1,300…
American Airlines generally will not reimburse hotel rooms for customers. Here, though, they told the customer to book on their own rather than taking a reservation offered by their third party supplier.
The airline even warns in its contract of carriage that in a situation like this they may not reimburse at all because they did not give the passenger written authorization to pay their own room.
Delays caused by us
If the disruption is our fault or you’re diverted to another city, and we don’t board before 11:59 p.m. local time on your scheduled arrival day, we’ll arrange an overnight stay or cover the cost of an approved hotel, if available. We don’t guarantee reimbursement for hotel expenses if you book directly without written authorization from American Airlines.
Another reader shares a story this week about trying to get money back from American Airlines when forced to pay their own room.
- A group of 29 passengers flew through Miami and misconnected when their inbound flight was delayed (American’s fault)
- American kept them in Miami for two days and committed to hotel
- The hotel voucher American provided covered the first night and $12 in meals
- The next day everyone went back to the airport for a new voucher. They were told “the voucher was good for both nights.” So they went back to the hotel, where they were told that unless they paid for the room themselves they couldn’t stay.
- They paid the second night and are trying to get reimbursed.
They forwarded American’s response to me: an offer of a single $25 travel credit in lieu of reimbursing rooms for 29 people. That’s $0.86 per person.
When an airline tells you they will reimburse you for coming out of pocket for your own hotel night, get that in writing and specify the amount. Print documentation of what rooms cost (consider showing rates from multiple online booking sites). That won’t make it easy, but might help.
And of course if you booked your ticket using a card that includes trip delay coverage, you’ll usually get up to $500 in expenses on a qualifying delay.
@ Gary — This is something that should have been regulated during the COVID bailoutts. But, we had a corrupt, moron prez with followers who never fly anywhere.
Enjoy the care of ‘a changed airline’!
“When an airline tells you they will reimburse you for coming out of pocket for your own hotel night, get that in writing and specify the amount.”
How do you recommend doing that? I’ve never seen a gate agent willing to put anything in writing outside things like boarding passes and vouchers.
@Gene,
Apparently, you might be flying to other lands but it has not been able to fix your arrogance and ignorance.
The real corrupt (and demented) president is the lifelong career politician, who never held a real job, who received bribes from foreign countries, who brought us two new wars, and who has sanctimoniously radical supporters like you.
Trump was the first one since Jimmy Carter who did not start new wars and initiated peace agreements between Israel and UAE, after which the two country mutually started scheduled flights to each other.
@Gene,
Apparently, flying does not necessarily fix someone’s lack of vision.
The former president initiated peace agreements between UAE and Israel. After that, scheduled flights started between the two countries for the first time.
The current president brought us two wars and is funding them.
Since the issue isn’t a force majeure, the contract of carriage should have provisions. So, what are the issues of suing the airline in small claims court? In Georgia, one can file a claim by mail and, unless necessary, not even show up for court. It’s a hassle but sue for more…way more and see what happens. Most corporations have a registered agent in states where they operate. The incident in this article occurred outside the United States but the carrier is a US flag carrier and subject to US laws. Any ideas?
Lovely homeless shelters
win,
the DOT can require airlines to tell the public what they will do but the DOT knows full well that forcing compliance for expensive passenger amenities will kill the ultra low cost and low cost carrier sector of the US airline industry.
AA knows this.
DFW has had multiple waves of weather events over the past couple weeks. It is DEN’s turn through the ringer today.
WN cancelled scores of flights over the past weekend due to weather in Florida, ATC constraints – and WN’s adding flights with no margin for error.
And errors happened and WN couldn’t do anything to get the operation back on track other than to cancel flights.
Various national news channels noted that WN didn’t offer the amenities they agreed to offer – including ones that were part of its settlement agreement.
The problem won’t be fixed because it would further concentrate pricing power among the highest fare carriers in the industry.
Follow Gary’s advice and get a card that has trip protection coverage, find your own hotel and buy your own food, and send the bill to your card holder.
Forget what the airline does or offers.
Maybe I’m just an out of touch rich old white guy but I frankly never expect an airline to cover hotels or meals during a disruption. I can easily afford to pay for a hotel (and have points with most programs that can also be used) plus a $10-$20 meal voucher isn’t worth me standing in line to get. I personally feel that disruptions are part of travel and if you can’t afford to pay for a hotel and meals if things get disrupted then maybe you can’t afford to travel.
DL Does this too all the time also DL cancelled a lot of flight out of FL yesterday
@Gene:
“But, we had a corrupt, moron prez with followers who never fly anywhere.”
Correction: we HAVE a corrupt, moron prez with followers who never fly anywhere (as if Section 8 housing is filled with frequent fliers….though there are drug kingpins I suppose). And the moron i’s still the president, whether he knows it or not.
wow
i am in violent agreement with tim dunn…
“Follow Gary’s advice and get a card that has trip protection coverage, find your own hotel and buy your own food, and send the bill to your card holder. Forget what the airline does or offers.”
1000% this.
@gary – get something in writing from the counter? seriously? why do you recommend impossibilities as a course of action? they will still pay you for credit card signups no matter what you say about their joke CoC
@ AngyFlier — Try turning the channel from FoxNews. Or, just remain angry and ignorant if that serves you better. Just remeber to vote on Wednesday November 6.
Whine, whine, whine. I’d be happy with a bed and a shower in the case of repeated flight delays resulting in cancellation. You’re too cheap to take care of yourself? Just sleep at the airport. If you’re not prepared to spend some money in an emergency, you should stay home. “Others” are not responsible for your comfort. Particularly POTUS. Get over it and move on. What a bunch of wussies.
ja,
feel free to post the list but flightaware shows that Delta cancelled precisely ONE flight systemwide yesterday.
UA was the most at 29 which was still less than 1%. B6 was at 26 which was 2%. No other airline registered even 1%.
We’ll wait for your list… or just note that your claim is false and unsupported by actual facts and data.
@GENE.. You poor baby, I hope you have plenty of tissues in your safe space this November.. Better yet why don’t you leave the country when Trump is returned to office once again, you won’t be happy with what is going to come down on the left. Brighter days are ahead in 2025!!!! FJB!
Yeah Gary echoing the sentiment here, some suggestion in HOW to get something in writing from an airline would be helpful. Like even if you got someone who wanted to help you, are they even able or authorized to give you something in writing? Best I can imagine is you’d film an agent telling you something but they may not like that either.
Spring break in winter, eh?
Last year, my Aegean flight from Heathrow to Athens was delayed due to bad weather over Germany. When we landed, I had missed my connection to corfu. Once off the transfer bus, I was met by an Aegean rep, who advised me I was booked on the following mornings flight, and she handed me a voucher for the airport Sofitel including dinner and breakfast.
Ok, Athens isn’t Heathrow or Atlanta or Chicago, but it does have a heavy schedule of international flights every day that do get delayed due to weather etc.
Well done Aegean for being super savvy at customer service
@ Frank — I’m sorry for you being uneducated.
From its hubs in ATL and DTW, Delta transports its discerning guests to premium vacation hot-spots.
Yes, this is what Consumers Protection in the U.S. is. Basically none.
That’s what happens in a system where political decisions are influenced by lobbies and unlimited campaigns financing by private companies (legalized corruption?). Who thinks a company that finances a politician does not expect anything in return?
Europe is not perfect for sure but we can recognize that passengers protection is at another level thanks to Regulation EC 261/2004.
European passengers have genuine protections here.
There’s no reason we can’t have similar statutes…
Well, except for the 535 members of Congress who are slaves to Big Corporate Interests– and overseen by a guy who was a Paid Schill for Big Business for 42 years. (We used to call him The Senior Senator For The Great State of MBNA).
Yes, how we ARE supposed to get anything in writing? In ATL at a big Delta customer service desk, the employees working it said they were CLOSED (10pm I think, but lots of passengers arriving from super late flights; this was in summer) and wouldn’t even talk to anyone, let alone give anything in writing. Kept telling misconnected passengers to go find an open customer service desk. Passengers were angry, said the gate agent told them to go to customer service for a hotel voucher. Delta CSR were like, move on.
This is what happens when a discount and cheap airline executives take over a class act airline. For about 20 years I flew AA regularly and on those occasions that I experienced flight disruptions., I did not even stand in line to get a voucher. I just booked myself at a hotel (nothing fancy, just an average clean hotel) and paid for it out of my pocket. After my trip was over, I would send the receipt along with all the necessary information to AA and I was always reimbursed with no issues. Thanks too Doug Parker and his incompetent cronies AA is not even a shadow of it former self.
Why does everyone have their hand out and expect something for nothing. Get your own hotel and buy your own meals. I do that routinely as I’m not about to grovel for a hand out or stay in a low end motel that an airline may pick. Sorry but if you are so cheap or broke you expect an airline to put you up for a disruption you really shouldn’t be traveling.
@Gene ,, what a load of garbage I’m pretty damn sure I’ve been to more countries than you have.I filled up five passports The last to being double pages, been to all seven continents including Antarctica and I damn sure voted for Trump and will do so this year again. So there take that pal!!!
To some of the readers/posters on here: this isn’t a political forum. Either stay on topic or get lost.
Had a similar experience with the hotel room I received after a canceled flight. Room was terrible, the kind you sleep fully clothed on top of all the bedding. I complained but got nowhere.
OK, five filled passports (good for 10 years apiece) and Trump supporter? I’m guessing retired, white, angry, greedy, racist Floridian. Am I close?
@GENE commented, and I quote, “I’m sorry for you being uneducated.”
For someone who claims to be highly educated, you should have said “I am sorry that you are uneducated”. Your intelligence level indicates that you are, in fact, a product of the public schools. Maybe you have a master’s degree in Diversity Studies. “MAGA Gene!!!”
Two answers to this –
1) this is when we attorneys come into play. Small claims court judges oftentimes despise despicable corporate behavior and will award damages. Many of them will be happy to compel payment if the damages and threaten to hold the defendants – airline – in contempt. That’s time behind bars and nobody wants that so they pay. But it’s a hassle….
2) My preference – buy an annual executive travel insurance plan. Runs a few hundred bucks and they will do the collecting from the airline behind the scenes. Way less headaches…
Corporate greed knows no bounds except in the court room 🙂
Just saw my typo… I’m not an attorney, the we was extra LOL
@Christian Rogner – typical dumb approach – sue someone. Really dude? Exactly what grounds do you think you have for such a suit? The answer is NONE. Read the C of C and other documents. Airlines are not obligated to provide specific levels of hotel (or even any hotel most of the time). Get over yourself. The answer is accept things happen, take care of yourself (buy your own hotel and meals) and quit looking for someone to blame!
Lol, must be nice to live in a bubble. Had a flight from Rhodes to Munich in 2010 that ended up being cancelled and they put us in a hotel where the AC was not working well. Dragged the mattress onto the balcony where at least there was a breeze. Adapt and overcome, travel isn’t for sissies.
These issues have nothing to do with who’s president. It has to do with the department of transportation and the airlines who don’t care. They hire cheap labor and take millions of dollars in bonuses. Neither US president cares about this issue
If it is a controllable disruption like a crew delay or crew timeout or a mechanical issue and you pay for your own hotel you absolutely should request reimbursement. Write in and request consideration under the Montreal Convention if it was on an international itinerary so the correct person can evaluate your request. Do not be surprised if you get an automated response. Politely write back and ask for a second look if you don’t get a response that actually matches your request. We do have some protections in place.
@Tim: You and I are really on the same page. Weather, ATC issues, labor issues not associated with the airline are force majeure…”acts of god” and not under control of the airline. Stuff caused by the airline and/or its contractors is 100% the airline’s responsibility and the CUSTOMERS (a/k/a passengers) are not getting what they paid for and deserve Too bad “Rule 240” (?) isn’t still in force. Using a credit card with trip insurance “built it” is, of course, a great idea. When I first started in the airline business, I worked in RES for a major carrier. The numbers of times that I had to accommodate passengers under Rule 240 wasn’t very often but it happened. Flying on an airline, booking a hotel, renting a car…better use a credit card with built in trip insurance!
@ Gene, I think you meant indoctrinated not uneducated.
Back to the point . . . several firms offer very reasonable priced ANNUAL travel insurance, often for less than the “membership” of some credit card companies. While I personally am no longer a frequent traveler I have found the Annual Travel Guard plan from AIG suits my needs and I don’t need to rely on the benevolence of harassed, and sometimes heartless, airline personnel.
@Christian
Yes, spring break is already happening. Check the news for Ft Lauderdale
@those saying get your own room.
Twice I’ve had flight Cancellations where all the room near the airport were booked solid due to other cancellations. 30 miles out and still booked, so it’s not quite as easy as you purport.
@Patti – if there are no rooms available near the airport the airline won’t have any either. They have a preferred rate but not a block. If nothing within 30 miles either the airline says no rooms available, they send you to a distant hotel (usually with a very early flight the next morning) or you make do with whatever you can. Personally, if I’m on an airplane with wifi and know I will miss my connection I go ahead and book a room at an airport hotel. Did that most recently booking the DFW Hyatt when a flight from Seattle to Charlotte wasn’t going to make the connection and knew I’d be on a flight the next morning. Took all the stress out knowing I had a room booked even before I landed (BTW due to weather all the rooms were sold out by the time I landed so glad I proactively booked it).
As someone that flys I’m and out of North Eleuthera often, this is so common. There was a plane of people stuck 2/10/24 over night the day we landed. When we flew out a month later we were prepared if something happened. Experience of that airport and knowledge. This is a very undeveloped island. I would compare the airport to Nicaragua. Airport. They don’t have the infrastructure in Eleuthera. Anyone traveling there should know this. Good hosts keep a few nights between departure and arrival for travel issues. This is an airport you cannot land into after dark. There are no towers, it is a completely sight landing and takeoff. Timing out I don’t know but if it was after dark, that’s it, it is not safe. This is an island for adventure folks, but then there are those who use that airport to get to Harbor Island. These people are less equipped to handle the bumps and their accommodations we’re probably $1300 a night anyway. Delta gets me stuck in ATL 60% of the time; that’s a literal statistic. They don’t care. Thank God for Minute Suites in ATL.
@ Frank — You have no idea what you are talking about. Typical.
@retired gambler
That’s real nice if they cancel it quickly. But if it’s hours and we even boarded once, then had to get off to “fix” the problem. Then the crew timed out. The replacement crew didn’t make it back in time.
Now if they’d let us know 3 hours earlier, maybe we could have found something but by 3 hours, everything was booked solid. Yes, I looked for something. Nada available at ANY price.
AND it was during the Christmas holidays
Clearly, this isn’t right as per the Regulations of the Government. The U.S. Department of Transportation has to investigate this airline AGAIN!! Unfortunately, it’s hard to win against airlines because they try to shield themselves from liability. It often works, but I am not sure if I buy that. Yes, the Mechanical Problem was something American Airlines could not cover the Compensation under their Contract of Carriage. However, Airlines can’t hold onto the bags of Passengers for Security Reasons. Passengers have rights to Compensation. For instance, a passenger in the United Kingdom tried to get Compensation from Delta in 2020 or 2021. The airline hadn’t responded. The passenger then took this matter to court and had sent High Court Enforcement Agents to get the Airline to Pay up at Heathrow Airport Terminal 2.
@Patti – understand and that sucks. However, doesn’t change the fact that the airline wouldn’t be able to provide a hotel room either if none are available. Under current rules no way to get compensation. If you complain you likely would have gotten some frequent flyer miles added to your account but that doesn’t change the fact you are sleeping in the airport.
File a formal complaint with DOT. It’ll cost ’em more to deal with that then they’d ever pay for a hotel room. Don’t get mad, get even.
I had this same situation in Costa Rica, AA, with a mechanical issue, was stuck for 3 extra days, they ran out of inventory and told people to book their own rooms and they would reimburse. Honestly I was thrilled. Booked El Mangroove, had a lovely stay, sent in my receipts for food, taxi, room totaling over $1500. 3 weeks later I received a check for the full amount, no questions asked. I was geared for a fight but I was more than pleasantly surprised!
Buy travel insurance?
Having been a gate agent, I can tell you they don’t write out letters of acknowledgment of liability and I always laughed (to myself) when a pax said they were going to sue the airline or never fly the airline again. To the first, I don’t give a damn, to the second, Good #^{*{#*@ luck with that!