The Transportation Department said airlines will be required to provide automatic cash refunds within a few days for canceled flights and “significant” delays.
  • RustyEarthfire@lemmy.worldEnglish
    68·
    8 months ago

    The complete rules are here: https://www.transportation.gov/airconsumer/refundsfinalruleapril2024

    The meat of it is the table on pages 9-14 and mostly comprehensible.

    Worth noting:

    • A change to your flight number is always a “cancellation” and you may choose to accept a refund
      • The expectation is most people would not, for the same reason most don’t cancel their refundable tickets - they want to go on the flight
    • There are no carve outs for weather, etc.
      • I am really glad to see this because airlines could claim “weather” for connecting flights, so any weather anywhere meant they could delay your flight
    • PM_Your_Nudes_Please@lemmy.world
      45·
      8 months ago

      Yeah, the weather note is huge. Historically, airlines would just cite “weather” because there was a single cloud in the sky halfway to the destination. Because if a cancellation was weather related, they didn’t have to pay out.

      I basically see this as the government going “look, we tried to be nice and give you some leeway. But you abused that by citing weather for every single cancellation. So now you’re on a tight leash and can’t even cite it when it’s valid.”