02/09/2022
Props to the US DOT and Sec. Pete Buttigieg for the work on the new airline policies. While some of these are not totally new, it's still nice to have a uniform dashboard and some better federal regulation and commitment. Some of you may realize that in the EU and UK there are major regulations that entitle you to dollar/euro/pound amounts for these errors, in addition to meals and hotels. There is not some exception either (by the way, these rules apply if your US carrier FLIES you to these nations). We don't (yet) have this, but I call this a start, albeit small. This dashboard centralizes the policies and can help you choose who to fly in serious times (ie need to be sure to be rebooked on another airline if you miss the last flight of the day? Don't fly Allegiant, Spirit, Frontier or Southwest--all budget carrier, but also ALASKA, who is not.)
Note: The airlines are still not responsible when a thunderstorm prevents a plane from flying (I mean, come on, no one can help that!) And unfortunately, air traffic gets a pass. That sounds logical, but if you have ever been in a holding pattern at DFW where it's just too crowded (and pilots have actually told me they have been held off 45 minutes out and told to circle or planes get held from feeder airports for TWO HOURS), then you know that's a major pain.
It is worth it to bookmark this website because the next time you fly, you may need it.
Also, funny (in a sad sort of way) backstory. This summer Sec. Buttigieg gave a press conference on how the flight cancellations were out of control and US carriers needed to basically get it together because it was absolutely unacceptable for them to have delays and cancellations of the magnitude they were having.
He then left the press conference to catch his flight--and it was canceled! He ended up having to take a train!
This excerpt if from Gary Leff's column View from the Wing. I find him to be a bit cynical, but I found his summary well-worth quoting. He's a good authority on all things American Airlines, but a former college debater so he's almost always the devil's advocate:
"American Airlines says they will only rebook you on another (partner) airline '[i]f no American Airlines flights are available until the next day.'
"Delta simply says they will do it '[i]f a Delta flight is unavailable,' but they don’t define what unavailable means, offering no timeline. They don’t use the word partner, instead offering the broader 'airline with which we have a ticketing agreement' instead. (Partner may mean codeshare or frequent flyer partner, while Delta has a ticketing agreement with other major U.S. airlines that they don’t have deeper partnerships with.)
"United uses the same 'next day' standard as American but requires that you ask for rebooking on a partner airline (so have to know this is an option and prompt for it) which is a step the others do not specify as necessary.
"The rebooking commitment on other airlines, in writing, is something that hasn’t consistently been offered especially for passengers traveling in economy class and without frequent flyer status. So that’s another improvement, though again the fine print – like a next day travel requirement – makes it less useful than it might appear in the DOT chart.
"What the largest airlines have done, in essence, is adopted a policy that does the minimum to get them a check mark on the DOT website while limiting their exposure. Still, a check mark is better than an X."
The U.S. Department of Transportation has created a dashboard to ensure the traveling public has easy access to information about services that U.S. airlines provide to mitigate passenger inconveniences when the cause of a cancellation or delay was due to circumstances within the airline’s control...
