One of the main goals of the US President Joe Biden’s administration has been the reforming of the country’s aviation industry to offer better and fairer rights to passengers. Announced by the Department of Transportation (DOT) in April and signed into law in May with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Reauthorization Bill, the new rule, requiring airlines to offer cash refunds instead of any other form of reimbursement for cancelled flights entered into force on Monday.
While before carriers could get away with only offering passengers vouchers or milage points in return for their disrupted travel, now they are required to automatically provide refunds. Moreover, besides cancellations and severe delays, the rule also stipulates refunds have to be offered for delayed luggage and unprovided ancillary services.
“If your airline is very delayed or cancelled, and the airline could’ve prevented that, you deserve more than just getting the price of your ticket. You deserve to be fully compensated. Your time matters. The impact on your life matters. (…) Airline passengers in Canada, for example, and the European Union and other places already get these compensations”, Biden explained in May.
Passengers deserve to get their money back when an airline owes them—without headaches or haggling.
Pete Buttigieg, US Secretary of Transportation
Concretely, passengers are entitled to a refund if their flight is cancelled or significantly changed, and they do not accept the significantly changed flight, rebooking on an alternative flight, or alternative compensation.
Passengers who have filed a mishandled baggage report are entitled to a refund of their checked bag fee if the bag is not delivered within the applicable timeframe after arrival:
- 12 hours of the passenger’s domestic flight arriving at the gate
- 15 or 30 hours of the passenger’s international flight arriving at the gate, depending on the length of the flight.
Lastly, passengers are entitled to a refund for the fee they paid for an extra service-such as Wi-Fi, seat selection, or inflight entertainment-if an airline fails to provide this service.
“Without this rule, consumers have to navigate a patchwork of cumbersome processes to request and receive a refund — searching through airline websites to figure out how to make the request, filling out extra ‘digital paperwork’, or at times waiting for hours on the phone”, the DOT said in April. “Passengers would also receive a travel credit or voucher by default from many airlines instead of getting their money back, so they could not use their refund to rebook on another airline when their flight was changed or cancelled without navigating a cumbersome request process.”
The law also states that refunds must be prompt, meaning airlines and ticket agents must promptly issue refunds within seven business days of refunds becoming due for credit card purchases and 20 calendar days for other payment methods.
Moreover, airlines and ticket agents must provide full refunds of the ticket purchase price, minus the value of any portion of transportation already used. The refunds must include all government-imposed taxes and fees and airline-imposed fees.
