Regulators are ready to hold airlines accountable Fri Aug 5 Purchasing flights is quite stressful — what if your schedule changes or an emergency comes up? What if the airline makes major changes? Or a huge delay disrupts your whole schedule? In most cases, you lose money requesting a flight change or end up with a hard-to-use voucher that has somehow expired by the time you get to it. A new proposal is now hoping to compensate Americans for at least some of these scenarios. Introduced by the Department of Transportation — who has experienced a massive increase in complaints about air travel — the proposal requires refunds any time, regardless of ticket type, if the airline… - Changes the arrival or departure airport or adds stops in the itinerary
- Switches planes, resulting in a significant downgrade in experience
- Changes the arrival or departure time by 3+ hours on domestic flights or 6+ on international flights
Similar legislation has existed in Europe since 2004 through the E.U. Passenger Rights Regulation. Not only does the claim of compensation range from $250 to $600 per passenger, but the airline is required to inform passengers of their rights should they experience a delay or cancellation. This is in contrast to current U.S. policies where passengers have to initiate communications to then argue for some relief. And with over 80,000 domestic flights canceled between January and May 2022, passengers and flight attendants alike are frustrated. American Airlines flight attendants claim their schedules are so jam-packed that any cancellation or delay completely throws off their schedules and requires more attendants to be on-call, which means possibly working on extremely short notice. This comes just two years after American Airlines cut the number of flight attendants on longer trips to save on costs. | |
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