Dealing with Cancelled Flights

Few events are more frustrating than properly planning avacation by thoroughly reviewing your cheaptravel options including cheap airplane tickets, discount hotel rooms, discounttravel deals, and cheap vacation packages, onlyto later be told that your airline has cancelled your flight.

In the U.S. there is no federal law or regulation thatspecifies what, if any rights a passenger has when an airline cancels hisflight. Passenger cancellation rightsrest solely with the airlines contracts of carriage, as well as relevantprinciples of general contract law. Inthe absence of federal regulations, those rights are not uniform and vary fromairline to airline.

All airline contracts clearly state that they do notguarantee schedules and that they are never responsible for consequentialdamages/losses a passenger suffers by not arriving at his destination on timeor at all.

With most flight cancellations, passengers have two basiccontractual rights: either a seat on theoriginal airlines next available flight or a refund of the unused portion of aticket. Most airlines offer variousforms of assistance if they cancel a flight for a reason within the airlinescontrol, but not because of bad weather or some other force majeure factor.

Only about 1.6 percent of all U.S. domestic flights werecancelled in 2015. About three tenths ofone percent were diverted to an airport other than the original destination.

Because airlines today are flying at or close to capacity,being offered the next available seat may result in a substantial delay. When dealing with a cancellation you shouldbe aware of the following, according to Ed Perkins:

• Usuallyairlines automatically rebook passengers when a flight is cancelled well inadvance of a scheduled departure time and notifies the flier via email ortext. If the airlines alternativeflight is reasonable, you should take it. Arranging a different flight is usually a major hassle. If the suggested flight is not reasonable,then you should call the airline with an alternative flight request.

• When dealingwith a last minute cancelled flight, go online and find alternative flights andthen contact the airline with by calling its 800 number or speak to anairlines agent at the airport. Manydetails unspecified in the airlines contract are negotiable. Most airline representatives prefer torespond to a specific suggestion than start looking at all alternatives.

• Maintainyour cool when dealing with airline agents. Remember the representative you are speaking to is not responsible forthe cancellation and cannot offer unavailable seats. Aggressive behavior typically result is lessassistance, not more.

While a few airlines continue to offer their passengers theability to fly via a different airline because of a cancelled flight, if seatavailability on its own airline is a problem, this is no longer common as itwas prior to U.S. airline deregulation.

Airline delay assistance when the delay is theresponsibility of the airline typically includes the following:

• Mealvouchers for delays of more than four hours.

• Freehotel accommodations for extended delays. Airlines policies here vary from specifying delay times of eight hoursor more, or for delays of over four hours within the period of time between 10pm and 6 am; while still other just say significant time. Some airlines exclude hotel offers for delaysat the passengers home airport.