As of October 28, 2024, the United States Department of Transportation (DOT) has implemented new consumer protections for airline passengers, which I’d consider to be great news. This policy was first proposed back in August 2022, but as you’d expect, it takes quite some time for new regulations to take effect.
New automatic refund rules for canceling flights
Thanks to new regulations in the United States, airlines are now required to provide automatic refunds if a flight is canceled or has a significant schedule change, and if passengers don’t want to accept the significantly changed flight, be rebooked on an alternative flight, or accept alternative compensation.
The definition of a canceled flight is pretty straightforward, while for these purposes a flight that’s “significantly changed” would be a domestic flight with a change of over three hours, or an international flight with a change of over six hours.
Airlines have to refund passengers within seven business days if they bought a ticket with a credit card, and have to refund passengers within 20 business days if they used another form of payment. Airlines also have to clearly spell out that they’re required to do this.
It’s great to see these changes implemented, since they’re pretty common sense regulations, you’d think. However, during the pandemic, airlines certainly tried to see what they could get away with. Presumably avoiding a similar situation in the future is part of the motivation for these changes.
As Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg describes these changes:
“Passengers deserve to get their money back when an airline owes them — without headaches or haggling. Today, our automatic refund rule goes into full effect. Airlines are required to provide prompt cash refunds without passengers having to ask.”
New regulations for baggage and ancillaries
The latest regulations also provide more protection to consumers related to ancillaries, including bags.
First of all, 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. That timeframe is starting 12 hours from when a passenger’s domestic flight arrives at the gate, and either 15 or 30 hours from when a passenger’s international flight arrives at the gate, depending on the length of the flight.
On top of that, 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 the airline fails to provide this service.
All of these seem like totally fair policy changes that simply force airlines to do what they should’ve done all along. Admittedly manage your expectations when it comes to some of these. For example, you’d only get a refund for inflight entertainment if you specifically paid for that (rather than just being on an airline where the included inflight entertainment is broken).
Bottom line
The Department of Transportation has implemented new consumer protections. This includes a new automatic refund requirement in the event of a flight being canceled or having a serious schedule change. There are also refund regulations if your bag is delayed, or if you purchase ancillaries but don’t receive them as you should. These are some minor but pro-consumer changes, and I’m happy to see them.
What do you make of the DOT’s new policies?
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