Despite all the reports you see about the need for additional travelers’ rights, here in the U.S., airline travelers already enjoy a reasonably robust set of rights as things stand. If you want a quick refresher course on your rights as an airline traveler, the best place to start is the current Department of Transportation (DoT), “dashboard,” a set of three tables that show the main promises from all the big airlines. The dashboard covers the 10 largest U.S. airlines: Alaska, Allegiant, American, Delta. Frontier, Hawaiian, JetBlue, Southwest, Spirit, and United. Entries are based primarily on each line’s contract of carriage, which is the controlling document in your transaction with an airline.
The first table shows which airlines guarantee that a minor child age 13 or under be seated adjacent to an adult in the travel party. Given all the publicity this issue has received, it came as a bit of a surprise to me that lacking any regulatory requirement, Alaska, American, Frontier, and JetBlue voluntarily promise to seat minor children next to an accompanying adult. I suspect the others will be forced to follow soon.
The second table shows what each line owes you in the event of a “controllable cancellation,” meaning a cancellation due to some factor within an airline’s control. The table lists sight specific commitments—mostly the ones you expect. Not surprisingly, all 10 lines promise to rebook you on one of their own flights at no additional cost and payment for a meal if a subsequent flight is delayed three hours or more. All but Frontier offer to pay for a hotel for an overnight cancellation—a bit better than the last time I checked. Only Alaska and JetBlue offer future credit in a cancellation delay of three hours or more and only Alaska adds frequent-flyer miles.
The third table shows what each line owes you in a “controllable delay,” one due to a factor within an airline’s control. These commitments generally track with the cancellation commitments.
- The dashboards do not include Avelo, Breeze, and Sun Country, but presumably DoT will add those smaller lines if they survive and prosper.
- They do not establish a strict definition of controllable problems.
- They do not include anything about foreign airlines. U.S. travelers on European lines are eligible for even more extensive rights under EC Regulation, which you can check at Your Europe.
DoT posts a lot of other useful information for air travelers, starting with its consumer protection portal. If you believe an airline has mistreated you or failed to deliver on its promises, DoT urges you to file a complaint report. Yes, those bureaucrats actually do read your complaints and use complaint tallies as a basis for future study and regulation.
And there’s still plenty to be done. U.S. coverage continues to lag behind what’s available in Europe. There, the requirement for a “care” standard—mainly meals and hotels during delays and cancellations—extends to even some that are not subject to airline control, and the EU takes a stricter view of what an airline must consider as “controllable.”
Other consumer protections in the wind include a requirement for the FAA to set minimum seat sizes necessary to assure safe evacuation of a crash. The recent quick and safe evacuation on Japan Airlines has given ammunition to those who oppose minimum seat sizes, and my take is that, no matter what anyone says, actual relief from today’s cattle car crowding is not likely in my lifetime or even yours. You’re more likely to see some success in regulations requiring that airline credit vouchers be required to have some combination of extended validity, transferability, and cash conversion. Whatever happens, we consumer advocates won’t have any reason to shut up any time soon.
