Unless you live on some remote planet, you know the equation that dominates the current air travel scene: Surging demand plus unprepared industry equals chaos. This year has seen an unparalleled rate of flight cancellations and delays, with no immediate fix on the horizon beyond wholesale pre-emptive cancellations. So if, like me, you’re holding to plans for a late-summer or fall trip, you’re probably also considering what rights and remedies you'll get if you get caught in the cancellation and delay mess. For travel within the U.S., the only legally required relief concerns the single case of denied boarding (“Bumping”) due to overbooking. Beyond that, all you’re due is what each airline’s contract of carriage specifies. And those contracts leave you vulnerable to some big gotchas.
1. Availability Stretch.
Almost all airline contracts of carriage promise you the next available seat on one of its own flights; the big ones and some small ones say they can even transfer you to another airline, at their sole discretion, not yours. But “next available” seems to be a slippery concept. Alaska and Southwest say they'll re-book you in their next available “space,” American says the next seat in the same “cabin or class,” and Delta, Hawaiian, JetBlue, and United say next seat in the same “class of service.” The gotcha is that some airlines are interpreting “class” to mean “fare class:” If your original ticket is in base economy, for example, you get only the next available base economy seat, not the next seat in the economy cabin, and that next basic economy seat could be days or even weeks later. As you might expect, those lines’ contracts of carriage don’t define “class of service” precisely enough to give you any leverage.2. Force Majeure Stretch.
Most big airlines’ contracts of carriage commit them to give you some help—even accommodation and meals—when an extended delay or cancellation is due to circumstances within their control, but not in cases of weather or other force majeure event. The gotcha is how far an airline can stretch the definitions of weather and force majeure. Otherwise, all you’re due is as above: refund or their re-accommodation offer.3. Code-share Confusion.
In theory, if you’re delayed or canceled flying one airline’s plane on another line’s ticket as a code-share, the ticketing airline is responsible for arranging a fix. The gotcha is that principle leaves you wide open to the “Otherguy Overby” effect: each airline blaming the other.4. You’re Never “Whole.”
No matter what you’re offered or which decisions you make, the gotcha is that you never come out “whole,” in the tort law sense: You always lose some combination of money and time. If you take the refund to buy a new ticket, you’re likely to pay a lot more for a replacement—if you can find one. And a substitute flight almost always means you'll be late—often very late—getting to your destination or home. You may have to pay a no-show penalty at your first hotel. In a weather delayed or canceled connection, you have to pay for your own extra meals and unplanned overnight accommodation. Even problems returning home disrupt your schedule.The take-away from all this is that for the foreseeable future, air travel entails risks of disruption. I pose some general suggestions:
If an airline’s offer is anywhere near to being acceptable, take it. Anything else will cost you more. Relief from the gotchas is problematic.
Try to avoid advance arrangements that are nonrefundable or entail a cancellation penalty.
If a delay or cancellation hits you before you leave home, your best Plan B is often to take the refund and try again later.
EU regulations give air travelers on flights within or from Europe substantially better compensation. More later.
