Summer is ‘high season’ for flight delays. What travelers must know

The summer travel season is in full swing, often bringing more flight delays and cancellations.

But travelers could also be out of luck on the subject of reimbursement for such disruptions, depending on the basis cause and specific airline policy, experts said.

“On the whole, within the U.S. airlines aren’t really obligated to pay you anything, anytime,” said Eric Napoli, chief legal officer at AirHelp, which helps fliers claim compensation for delayed or canceled flights.

“This summer will see more planes within the skies, frequent bad weather, and increased use of the nation’s airspace,” based on a Federal Aviation Administration webpage about summer travel.

Bad weather has accounted for 66% of total flight-delay minutes in 2024, based on FAA data through July 21. In 2023, the share was about 72%.

Such data presumably includes a world IT outage on July 19 that grounded hundreds of flights.

“Volume” caused one other 15% of delays this 12 months, FAA said.

Summer generally brings a “higher volume of passengers and flights” since school is out and “tens of millions of Americans head on vacation,” Hayley Berg, wrote in a recent evaluation of travel disruptions.

Indeed, eight of the ten busiest travel days of 2024 were in June, July and August, based on FAA data as of Sunday.

There’s generally one overarching duty for airlines relative to compensation for passengers: Carriers owe a refund of the ticket price and costs in the event that they cancel a flight or make a “significant change” within the flight — no matter the rationale, based on the U.S. Department of Transportation.

Consumers are entitled to a refund only in the event that they select not to just accept an alternate option from the airline, like rebooking on a distinct flight, the DOT said.

This obligation holds even for individuals who bought non-refundable tickets.

One caveat: The DOT doesn’t currently define what constitutes a “significant” change. That determination relies on aspects like length of delay and flight and particular circumstances, the agency said.

Starting Oct. 28, airlines could have to “promptly” and routinely pay refunds to customers, resulting from a recently issued Biden administration rule. It is going to also define a “significant” change as a delay of three hours for domestic flights and 6 hours for international flights.

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A Transportation Department dashboard outlines major carriers’ guarantees to customers within the event of cancellations or delays longer than three hours.

Airlines are “required to stick” to those guarantees, the agency said.

For instance, all airlines commit to rebooking passengers on the identical airline without cost and to providing a free meal if cancellation results in waiting not less than three hours for a latest flight. Most offer a hotel stay for overnight delays. None offer money compensation for a delay of three or more hours.

Importantly, these airline policies only apply to “controllable” delays and cancellations, meaning those attributable to airline operations. The identical obligations may not apply to situations outside their control, like bad weather.

A recent spate of delays and cancellations related to a world IT outage was deemed a “controllable” event, for instance. A failed tech update by cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike impacted Microsoft services utilized by several airlines.

Passengers flying abroad could have more rights depending on international rules, experts said.

For instance, passengers flying to and from Europe generally have more rights to compensation resulting from European Union law, based on AirHelp.