SEATAC, Wash. — As we approach the busy holiday travel season, a new rule could mean more money in your pocket for inconveniences.
As of this week, airlines must offer to reimburse you if your flight is canceled or delayed for a significant amount of time.
The airlines were already required to reimburse you if your flight was canceled or delayed. Yes, but it wasn’t automatic. And they could offer miles or a voucher for another flight.
Now they must first offer cold hard cash or its equivalent.
It didn’t take long to find passengers at SEA who have gotten the bad news about a flight.
“Ever had a flight canceled?” passenger Sasha Forland, Port Orchard, was asked. “Yes!”
“Not canceled, no,” said Trisha Gilden, Whidbey Island. “Delayed? Yeah.”
And Forland says the airline never offered a refund.
“No,” she said, “I think they gave me like $100 discount.”
As of Monday, the feds have new rules requiring airlines to be transparent about what they have to offer when flights don’t take off as scheduled.
“The new rule says if your flight is canceled for any reason, you are entitled to an automatic refund in the form that you paid for it,” said Herb Weisbaum, a contributing editor at Checkbook.org.
Weisbaum says the new rules put passengers first.
“The consumer does not have to know the system,” Weisbaum said. “The airlines have to follow the system; not make you jump through hoops or play fun and games with your refund.”
Moreover, the rules apply to canceled and delayed flights. That means domestic flights that are delayed more than three hours, six hours on international flights or where the number of connections increases or a passenger is downgraded from, say, first class to coach. When that happens, the airline must first offer cash.
“Money is money,” said Weisbaum. “And you can do anything you want with it.”
It was news to this passenger.
“Oh, that’s cool,” said Vish Sujan, Seattle. “I didn’t know that. That’s new to know.”
But Sasha Forland isn’t so sure she would accept the cash.
“Probably not,” Forland said. “I probably would have just taken the $100 discount.”
There is a catch. Once you take the cash, you are on your own. You will have to figure out how to get where you want to go.
Refunds extend to baggage delays, too, as well as extra services, like WIFI. If it isn’t working, you’re due a refund for that, too.