Delighted that the Biden-Harris Administration's Secretary of Transportation, Pete Buttiegeg does his job without fear or favor. From The Washington Post
New rules for airlines could help you get speedy refunds
Consumer protections just went into effect that require airlines to repay passengers for lost luggage and bad WiFi.
Passengers can submit complaints to the Transportation Department with this form. Here’s what air travelers need to know:
Refunds for canceled flights and big delays
Since May, when President Joe Biden signed the Federal Aviation Administration reauthorization bill into law, passengers have been entitled to a refund without them jumping through hoops if airlines cancel or significantly change their flights and they choose not to rebook or take the changed flight.
Under the law, airlines are required to proactively offer refunds rather than vouchers or credits without passengers having to ask for it. The money is due within seven business days if the ticket was bought with a credit card and within 20 business days for other transactions.
The law also spells out for the first time how long a delay must be to qualify as “significant” enough for a refund: three hours for domestic flights and six hours for international trips.
“This is a protection for airline passengers that’s long overdue,” Teresa Murray, consumer watchdog director at the U.S. Public Interest Research Group, said in an email.
Before the rule, Murray said, airlines “often slow-walked” refunds they were obligated to provide for cancellations. “That’s not allowed anymore,” she noted.
Murray said some passengers might not want a refund; they might just want to get to their destination as soon as possible. But for those who do want their money back, they should get it without hassle.
The starting point should be that if you do want a refund, you get it quickly and without delays or marketing tricks,” she said.
The starting point should be that if you do want a refund, you get it quickly and without delays or marketing tricks,” she said.
Refunds for checked luggage fees
Measures that went into effect Monday cover refunds for other parts of a flight. If a traveler pays a checked-bag fee but their luggage is mishandled, they are entitled to a refund for the baggage if it is not delivered within 12 hours of their arrival for a domestic flight. For international flights, the threshold is either 15 or 30 hours from arrival, depending on how long the flight was.
Refunds for broken WiFi, seating fails
As of Monday, passengers who pay for WiFi, a specific seat assignment or in-flight entertainment are also owed a refund for those fees if the airline isn’t able to deliver what it promised.
Refunds for other changes
As of Monday, travelers are also owed a refund if they choose not to take a flight that was significantly changed because of factors that go beyond delays, including an increase in the number of connections; a downgrade of cabin class or service; departures or arrivals from a different airport or certain changes that make travel less accessible for travelers with a disability.
At least one airline, Delta, is under investigation for allegedly not following the refund law over the summer after global IT issues caused massive cancellations.
“We are concerned that some airlines may not be disclosing that travelers are entitled to refunds or, worse, misleading travelers into thinking they are not entitled to a refund,” Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg wrote in a letter to airline executives in July. “Any time you communicate to a passenger on a canceled or significantly changed flight, particularly about a voucher or credit, you must make it clear that they are entitled to a refund.”
Airlines for America, an industry trade group, said in a statement in April that the 11 largest passenger airlines in the country had issued $43 billion in customer refunds between January 2020 and December 2023.
“We support the automatic refund rule and are happy to accommodate customers with a refund when they choose not to be rebooked," the organization said in a statement Tuesday morning.
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