{"id":4450,"date":"2022-05-12T04:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-05-12T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/?p=4450"},"modified":"2023-04-18T11:42:46","modified_gmt":"2023-04-18T17:42:46","slug":"what-am-i-entitled-to-when-an-airline-cancels-my-us-domestic-flight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/index.php\/2022\/05\/12\/what-am-i-entitled-to-when-an-airline-cancels-my-us-domestic-flight\/","title":{"rendered":"What Am I Entitled To When an Airline Cancels My US Domestic Flight?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cUnited\/Delta\/Southwest\/Alaska\/Breeze\/Whatever Air cancelled my flight from <a class=\"ek-link\" href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Reno%E2%80%93Tahoe_International_Airport\">RNO<\/a>\u2013<a class=\"ek-link\" href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Lubbock_Preston_Smith_International_Airport\">LBB<\/a>, what does the airline owe me?\u201d This question pops up on <a class=\"ek-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.flyertalk.com\/forum\/delta-air-lines-skymiles\/2063778-cancelled-delta-flight.html\">Flyertalk<\/a>, <a class=\"ek-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.reddit.com\/r\/americanairlines\/comments\/rv63iv\/what_to_do_if_my_flight_cancelled_by_aa_just\/\">reddit<\/a>, <a class=\"ek-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.quora.com\/Do-I-get-a-full-refund-if-my-flight-is-cancelled\">Quora<\/a>, and other random internet forums all the time, and the responses are often mostly wrong. If a carrier cancels your US domestic flight, you\u2019re entitled to<a class=\"ek-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.transportation.gov\/individuals\/aviation-consumer-protection\/refunds\"> exactly one thing only<\/a> by US DOT rules:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>A full refund to your original form of payment<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>What about a hotel if I\u2019m not rebooked until the next day? What about meals? What about booking me a new ticket on another airline? What if they rebook me on another flight number with the same departure time and the same arrival time as my canceled flight, on the same airline? What if I lost a multi-million dollar deal because I wasn\u2019t there? What if I got divorced because I missed my flight?<\/p>\n<p>Every single one of these questions has the same answer, and it was above: You\u2019re entitled to a <a class=\"ek-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.transportation.gov\/individuals\/aviation-consumer-protection\/refunds\">full refund to your original form of payment<\/a>, and absolutely nothing else (this can be advantageous if you\u2019re trying to <a class=\"ek-link\" href=\"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/index.php\/2021\/12\/28\/quick-tip-for-expiring-airline-vouchers\/\">turn a flight credit into a refund<\/a>). Of course you may be able to sweet talk an airline customer service representative into plenty of other options but there\u2019s no obligation for them to do anything but refund to your original form of payment.<\/p>\n<p>If you\u2019re ever stuck dealing with this you\u2019ll probably find that quite a few customer service agents either don\u2019t know the DOT rules, or they\u2019ve been trained to never offer a refund and only give one when a customer pushes and knows their rights, so prepare for frustration if a refund is what you\u2019re after.<\/p>\n<p>Of course, cancelled flights on an international itinerary can give you more rights than you\u2019ve got the in US, especially if your itinerary <a class=\"ek-link\" href=\"https:\/\/europa.eu\/youreurope\/citizens\/travel\/passenger-rights\/air\/index_en.htm\">includes a stop in the European Union<\/a>, so double-check the rules for any countries included in your itinerary too.<\/p>\n<p>Of course plenty of <a class=\"ek-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.flyertalk.com\/forum\/credit-card-programs\/2028061-credit-card-trip-delay-interruption-insurance.html\">credit cards offer trip interruption insurance<\/a> provided you paid for the flight with that card (Chase Sapphire cards, American Express Platinum cards, <s>Citi Prestige<\/s>, etc.). Don\u2019t grab one of these cards just for the insurance though, consider it an ancillary benefit if you already hold one.<\/p>\n<p><em>Update<\/em>: Justmeha reminded me that the Citi Prestige card no longer has trip interruption insurance.<\/p>\n<div class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-style-editorskit-rounded has-ek-typography\" style=\"\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter is-resized\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-4451\" sizes=\"(max-width: 720px) 100vw, 720px\" src=\"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/pizzaweights.jpeg\" srcset=\"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/pizzaweights.jpeg 720w, https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/pizzaweights-300x282.jpeg 300w\" width=\"420\"\/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\" style=\"font-size:14px\">Making the most of being stuck in a hotel gym, waiting for a new flight.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cUnited\/Delta\/Southwest\/Alaska\/Breeze\/Whatever Air cancelled my flight from RNO\u2013LBB, what does the airline owe me?\u201d This question pops up on Flyertalk, reddit, Quora, and other random internet<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_editorskit_title_hidden":false,"_editorskit_reading_time":2,"_editorskit_is_block_options_detached":false,"_editorskit_block_options_position":"{}","footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4450","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-wisdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4450","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4450"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4450\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7035,"href":"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4450\/revisions\/7035"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4450"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4450"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4450"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}