Your rights on a delayed US flight, and what DOT rules do not require

There is one thing to understand before anything else about delayed flights in the United States: there is no automatic cash compensation for a delay. None.

Travellers who have flown in Europe often assume otherwise, because EU Regulation 261/2004 requires cash payments of 250 to 600 euros for qualifying delays. The US has no equivalent, has never had one, and the difference catches people out every year.

What US passengers do have is a narrower set of rights, some of them genuinely strong. Knowing which is which is the entire practical value of this page.

What airlines must do

Refund a cancelled flight, automatically, in cash. If your flight is cancelled and you choose not to travel, the airline must refund your original form of payment without you asking. Not a voucher, not a credit, unless you actively choose one. This applies to every fare type including non-refundable tickets, and regardless of why the flight was cancelled. The refund must arrive within seven days for a card purchase and twenty days for other payment methods.

Refund a significantly delayed or changed flight on the same automatic terms, if you choose not to travel. "Significant" is now defined numerically rather than left to each airline: three hours or more on a domestic flight, six hours or more on an international one. A changed departure or arrival airport, an added connection, or a downgrade in class of service all qualify on their own, with no delay threshold attached.

Refund fees for services you paid for and did not receive. A checked bag that arrives materially late, a seat assignment you were moved out of, wifi that did not work.

Let you off the aircraft during a long tarmac delay. Three hours on a domestic flight, four on an international one, after which the airline must give you the chance to get off. Food, water and working lavatories are required well before that. The exception is a pilot or air traffic control judging that deplaning is unsafe. These limits are enforced with per-passenger fines large enough that airlines take them seriously.

Compensate you for denied boarding. This is the one situation with a genuine statutory cash payment, currently capped around $2,150. If you are involuntarily bumped from an oversold flight, the amount is set by regulation and scales with how late the airline gets you to your destination. Involuntary denied boarding is legally distinct from volunteering at the gate, where whatever you accept is a negotiation and no floor applies.

What airlines are not required to do

Pay you for the delay itself. No US regulation requires it. A rule that would have forced airlines to compensate passengers for delays inside their own control was proposed, and then withdrawn before taking effect. Proposals resurface in Congress periodically; none has become binding law.

Provide a hotel. Many carriers do so for delays within their control, under their own customer service commitments. That is policy, not law, and policy varies by carrier and can change.

Provide meals. Same position.

Rebook you on a different airline. Interline rebooking exists at most carriers' discretion and has narrowed considerably over the past decade. Do not assume it.

Do anything at all if you are on separate tickets. If airline A delivers you late and you miss a flight on airline B booked separately, airline B owes you nothing and will generally sell you the next seat at the walk-up fare. This is the most expensive avoidable mistake in US air travel, and it is why the connections guide recommends two hours minimum on separate tickets.

The customer service commitments are the document that matters

Since the DOT began publishing a comparison dashboard of what each airline promises for controllable delays and cancellations, the major US carriers have published binding commitments covering rebooking, meals and hotels.

These are enforceable in a way that a gate agent's improvisation is not. They differ meaningfully between carriers. If a trip matters, reading your airline's commitment before booking is fifteen minutes well spent, and quoting it at the desk works.

Practical steps when it happens

Act before the queue forms. Rebook in the app or by phone while 200 people are still walking to the service desk. Seats go in the order they are claimed.

If you decide not to travel, the refund should now arrive on its own. If a voucher or travel credit turns up instead, that is not a substitute unless you actively chose it, and you can insist on the original payment method.

Keep receipts if the airline's own commitment covers meals or a hotel for a controllable delay.

Check whether your credit card provides trip delay coverage. For many travellers this is worth considerably more than anything the airline is obliged to provide, and it is frequently forgotten.

If a carrier does not honour its own published commitment, file a complaint with the DOT. Complaints are logged, published in aggregate, and airlines respond to them.

Why this site does not link to claim companies

Companies that file delay claims on your behalf take a percentage. In Europe, where there is a statutory payment to claim, that can be a reasonable trade for someone who does not want the paperwork.

In the United States, for a delay, there is usually nothing to claim. This site links to none of them, takes no referral fees from any of them, and never will. That is a permanent editorial position and is stated on the about page.

This page is informational and is not legal advice. Rules change, and the current text on the DOT's aviation consumer protection site is the authority.

Where the DOT dashboard helps

The Department publishes a comparison of what each large US carrier commits to for controllable delays and cancellations. It is short, it is plain, and it is the fastest way to see how two airlines differ before you book rather than after something goes wrong.

The differences it exposes are real: whether meals are provided, at what delay threshold, whether a hotel is covered for an overnight, and whether the carrier will rebook you on a competitor. Those commitments are enforceable in a way that a verbal assurance at the gate is not.

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Reduce the odds of needing any of this: Delta's on-time record · Dallas/Fort Worth (DFW) delay statistics · How to read the grades