Tag Archives for delay compensation.
United and American are getting better at telling passengers the real reasons their flights are delayed. That transparency is useful, but it also exposes a long-running airline habit: blaming weather or air traffic control when it’s actually something within their control – like mechanical issues or available crew – that caused the delay in the first place.
Ryanair spent months refusing to pay a delayed passenger money she was legally owed, until an Austrian court bailiff walked onto one of its Boeing 737s and put the aircraft under seizure. The debt was just $1,182, but the scene at Linz Airport turned a routine turnaround into a warning about what can happen when airlines ignore passenger compensation orders.
The Biden administration planned to require airlines to pay passengers for flight delays – a U.S. equivalent to Europe’s “EU261” as a shorthand. The Trump administration just killed that effort.
A year and a half ago President Biden announced new rules coming to require airlines to pay cash compensation for flight delays and cancellations. Think of it as the U.S.’s answer to Europe’s ‘EU261’ compensation.
They didn’t actually do anything with this while they still could. Their new proposal isn’t yet fully baked, and likely won’t advance farther.
A year and a half ago President Biden announced new rules coming to require airlines to pay cash compensation for flight delays and cancellations. Think of it as the U.S.’s answer to Europe’s ‘EU261’ compensation.
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.”
EU261 includes ‘duty of care’ requirements like a hotel night if you’re stranded during a trip even because of weather. But did you know that this duty of care applies to U.S. domestic flights, on U.S. airlines, if you’re flying back from Europe?
Most U.S. airlines commit to covering the cost of hotel and meals during long delays that they are responsible for, like mechanicals and lack of crew to operate the flight.
Generally meal costs of some kind will be covered on delays of 3 hours or more, with $12 being a common amount.
It’s clear when American is obligated to provide this. But how do airport agents know this?
Simple (or not so simple): the computer at the gate now tells them, but they need to know what to look for. They need to check whether the flight is “E”ligible or “I”neligible, and how long the posted delay is for.
According to a White House official, President Biden and Transportation Secretary Buttigieg plan to introduce new airline regulations along the lines of Europe’s EU261 compensation rules that require payment to passengers for flight cancellations that are within the carrier’s control as well as in the event of significant delays.
Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel -- a topic he has covered since 2002.
Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »
