Flight delay refund: What are present rules for weather delays?

The US Federal Department of Transportation has announced new rules for remedial action against delayed and cancelled flights across the US. However, lack of clarity and other issues have left the airlines and passengers bemused. Post COVID scenario in the US witnessed chaotic scenes at the airports across the US with delayed and cancelled flights resulting in disrupted business travel and massive passenger inconvenience.

What remedy do the passengers have?

Under these rules, passengers whose flights are delayed beyond 3 hours and 6 hours for domestic and international travel respectively are entitled to automatic refund, gift vouchers, travel points and more automatically.

Under the current rules, a credit card refund shall be processed by the airlines within 7 working days and other forms of compensation within 20 working days. This shall come into effect if the passengers do not avail any alternate form of travel arranged by the airlines.

Earlier rules

Under the earlier rules, the airlines determined what a ‘significant delay’ constituted and hence passengers had little legal remedy for delayed and cancelled flights. It was this loophole that led to lack of accountability on the part of airlines who often appeared to have ignored passenger interests.

Present Loopholes

The fine print of the new rules is yet to be made public and has left aviation experts wondering whether delayed and cancelled flights due to weather events would enable passengers to apply for compensation. Legally, weather events are often considered to be ‘Act of God’ and no tortious liability can exist under such circumstances.

What happens next?

These new rules will go into the Federal Register after which it shall be implemented. The time period will be six months after these rules go into the Federal Register.

The US Civil Aviation market was estimated to be worth $842 billion in 2022 and is expected to increase to $1.6 trillion by 2030. Airline industry is reported to sustained massive losses globally and this move by the US Federal authorities will be seen keenly.

FAQs:

Q1. What are rules for flight delay?
A1. Under these rules, passengers whose flights are delayed beyond 3 hours and 6 hours for domestic and international travel respectively are entitled to automatic refund, gift vouchers, travel points and more automatically.

Q2. What are flight refund rules?
A2. The fine print of the new rules is yet to be made public and has left aviation experts wondering whether delayed and cancelled flights due to weather events would enable passengers to apply for compensation.