Getting a Refund From Airlines Will Be Easier Under New Rules
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Here's your money briefing for Monday, May 20th. I'm J.R. Whelan for The Wall Street Journal. If your flight is canceled or significantly delayed, the airline owes you a refund. But for many people, getting that money back is no easy task. Now the FAA is stepping in to simplify the process.
Even though when you're eligible, you're supposed to get one, airlines tend to make it pretty difficult either to find the refund form or go on hold for a long time and wait to get an answer and say, look, I want to cancel this. I want a refund. It's been a giant hassle for a lot of people.
We'll go over the new rules with Wall Street Journal travel columnist Dawn Gilbertson after the break.
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What new federal rules will make getting airline refunds easier and who announced them?
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The government is revamping the rules for airline passenger refunds. Wall Street Journal travel columnist Dawn Gilbertson joins me. Dawn, what's the nature of the new rule?
The new rule is going to make it easier for passengers to get a refund when their flight is canceled by the airline or significantly delayed.
When do they go into effect?
That's the bad news. They don't go into effect until late October. So they aren't going to be any help for your summer vacation.
Under the current rule, when are airlines required to give passenger refunds?
The important thing for travelers to know is that if an airline cancels or significantly delays your flight, and it does not matter what the reason is, it does not matter what kind of ticket you have, they owe you a refund. Now, the key thing to keep in mind here is a refund is great if you can cancel the trip or you have miles to book on another airline, but most of us need to get where we're going. We have to take the rebooking option. But if you want a refund, you are eligible.
Do airlines have to be transparent about the rules?
Yes. This has been a DOT rule for a while. So yes, they have to be transparent. But the tricky thing that some of them do is they make vouchers and not refunds back to your credit card, the default option. Or I've had it happen where I even canceled a refundable ticket on a major airline and I wanted my money back. And then I noticed that I didn't even pay close attention. And the little dot said travel credit. I did not want a travel credit. I wanted my money back.
What happens if the airline cancels your flight but then offers to book you on the next flight on the schedule to the same destination?
You take it. That's what most people do. Refund rules are fabulous, but it doesn't help everybody out there because a lot of us can't afford to fork out money for a last-minute ticket. Airlines are required to get you where you're going or put you on another airline, though in most cases that's not an option they offer, especially the major airlines, unless it's a desperate situation.
Yeah, if you have to rebook with another airline, that could be expensive. It could be a different ticket fare. Would any price differential be covered?
No. That's the key thing with refunds, right? Say you booked a one-way ticket from New York to Orlando for $300, and then that flight gets canceled, and you're like, you know what? I have to get to Florida. I have to make this wedding or this reunion or this graduation. Nine times out of ten, you're not going to find a last-minute ticket that cheap.
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