US DoT Reaffirms That All Airlines Must Issue Full Cash Refunds For Cancelled Flights To/From/Within The US!

Elal?

What if I’m in middle of a round-trip and still have a way back will they refund me?

So United’s policy of given a voucher which will only turn into a refund after a year, will be de facto permitted, as by the time the DOT gets around to enforcing its policy it will probably be a year from now and by then United will have given the refund anyway.

What if I paid using AA COMPENSATION VOUCHERS? Better to leave the ticket open for use within a year or any better options?

If they cancel your outbound flight, does that automatically allow you a full refund on your return since you couldn’t get there?

Any clearer guidelines on how long they have to rebook you?

What if I didn’t want to fly March 1.

I’m in middle of a round trip which is on American from ORD-LHR-TLV. However LHR-TLV is operated by ElAl who emailed me that they canceled that flight. Would American refund me the full ticket?

El Al isn’t open to receive this DoT guidance 🙂

Dan, what do you think of Delta offering no change fees for 2 years for April and May flights?

I’m surprised the airlines aren’t doing what the cruise lines are doing. Offering an option of a credit for 125% the cost if you agree to take credit instead of a refund.

If United cancelled my flight, and rebooked me on an earlier flight (about 65 minutees earlier), would that be considered cancelled, or a non-significant change in schedule?

United already changed their policy. Just called and got a refund for a cancelled TLV-IAD flight which was denied refund earlier. Took two minutes.

Hi,

I booked with UR with saphire reserve points at 1.5, my flight has been changed drastically but not canceled with United airlines.. should i call united or chase UR? Chase UR is only dealing with flights within 72 hours of departures..
Can united refund or this was to be done via chase ur?
thanks!

Jetblue only issued me a credit for a future flight, could I get back my money?

this is just @Dan’s dream come true.
I can see you drooling during the write-up.
Thanks for keeping us posted on this.

If I accepted a certificate already from United it’s too late to do anything about a refund, correct? The refused to refund (was for a basic econ ticket)

My wife’s Delta flight changed by 50 minutes (the consolidated flights game). I’m in a “stay at home order”. Why shouldn’t I be refunded??? Flight’s Sunday.

anyone have success with emirates?

Is my united tlv-ewr afternoon flight in beginning of may cancelled? I see that they are not selling tickets anymore for these flight. Does that mean that this flight is cancelled? When will they announce it?

I flew in from tlv to ny with a round trip ticket that was delta direct and the return was klm with a 12 hour stopover that got cancelled. booked through chase ur with points. Will I get half of it refunded or do they factor in the price of each of the flights?

Does this mean they have to give me a cash refund, and not credit?

got refund from spirits after i spoke to a manager….

HI Dan what if you cancelled flights before the flights were officially cancelled? For both air Canada and westjet credit vouchers were given, (Toronto to ny and Toronto to orlando). The flights were then cancelled after I already did so. Would I be eligible for the full refund rather than the credit?

If United cancels afternoon flight and says take evening flight can I say no and request refund?

If I’m the airline, and I know the gov’t will bail me out regardless, wouldn’t I be happy to refund everyone to build up the reputation of being a nice and good airline?

Had direct flights for family on Alaska for Pesach. Outbound and return separate reservations. outbound was 6 passenger through chase ur, and 1 directly with Alaska.
Outbound was cancelled. Placed on a stopover flight departing 7 hours later.
Called. Offered callback in 15 mins.
Refunded all the outbound tickets to “original payment method”.
1) does this entitle me to get a refund for return, even though it was bought separately?
2) will my ur points be redeposited automatically, or do I have to do something?
Did not contact chase at all.
TIA

Delta canceled my 4/1 flight from jfk to fll I called them at first I was told that I was rebooked as follows jfk-Boston-Bos-atl-Fll for the same day after I stopped laughing and said I want a refund I was told “sorry your ticket is a non refundable and we will give u credit I insisted I know federal dot regs She kept on telling me that these r extraordinary times and that rule doesn’t work I insisted I want to speak to a supervisor after a 3 minute hold she came back and told me that a supervisor authorized her to refund me. This is how they take advantage of people who don’t know. How disgusting!!!!

Had 5 basic economy tickets on Delta NY to Denver For April 7 -20. They changed the schedule couple times.
Called Delta couple days ago at 1am and got thru to an agent immediately. Gave full refund with no issues. Said refund will take from 7 to 21 days. I got it in 2 days.

On hold with JetBlue for 45 min…spoke nice said I dont want the new flights which was 5 hours earlier…she said trying times I’ll give you a future credit I said politely no I want a refund….she said she cant… I said dot and pointed to JetBlue’s contract of carriage which says….its the customer’s options if said carrier cancels the flight….she was insisting only a future credit…i said supervisor please….she said 15 minutes till …I said so where else am I going…..she came back that the supervisor approved refund back to the card…..dont give up on jet blue…if they cancel it’s on their contract of carriage that it is your choice…. good shabbos

Jet blue still won’t refund since my flight was changed less than 2 hours, still waiting to see what will happen in a week or so

What about travel agents? The airlines are willing to refund the flight but theyre saying that we need to get it through the travel agent which is only offering a partial refund or credit.
(Justfly)

After filing a complaint with the DOT and calling my credit card company to contest the charges ( this is after 3 VERY long calls to UA in the past couple of weeks!)…..I just called and they are issuing a refund….finally some satisfaction!!

I had an air Canada flight from YUL-CUN and they are refusing a refund, so issued a credit. What are you hearing in regards to travel into Mexico? What is the government run agency called so I can look into what they’re enforcing? Thanks!

Air canada is the worst costumer service ever.
They don’t want to give me even the credit to fly in the future.

The DOT’s relaxed enforcement actions because of COVID-19 mean you will spend a lot of time on the phone and you won’t see your money for a long time if the airline fights you on this due to their cash crunch getting worse. You can’t sue based upon this in small claims because the rule came from federal jurisdiction (DoT). You have to sue in federal court. So I would not be giving airlines any new cash and fight hard on the phone now if you need to refund.

Called AA for a cancelled flight with another flight 5 hours later.
Refund processed without questions but I was offered 20% bonus if choosing a voucher. Declined as I already have $2k credit with AA.

Shavua tov Dan. AA cancelled my flight but rebooked me within an hour keeping within the hour rule. Will I have a hard time getting a refund for this as DoT refund regulations are for involuntary cancellations?

Does the refund apply if I was the one who canceled the flight due to the CoVid19 concerns?

Takeh what about El Al?
They are not operating. No one to talk to
And like a different comment said, so what if they get fined? Govt will bail them out anyway
It’s like insurance companies

They insure insure insure collect premiums up to Wazu and then when something big happen, they close up shop and file bankruptcy. And obviously never pay out.

What if the flight is not cancelled but your state has a stay at home directive with fines up to $5000 for non essential travel? (Maryland)

what about tickets bought through a travel agent, the travel agent only wants to give a credit, what can i do?

What if they didn’t and Don’t cancel flight for this Tuesday to ny from lax. Paid Ur points.
Ur wants to give credit from united only in voucher!

Air Canada gave me full cash refund on my Pesach flight to Israel, no problem.

Forgive me if I’m mistaken but I think this link for the DOT complaint is not good, it takes me to some old article of yours…
The correct link is https://airconsumer.dot.gov/escomplaint/ConsumerForm.cfm

Iberia said they’d give me a refund after I mentioned the DoT and threatened a complaint and credit card dispute but they wouldn’t refund the $25 per passenger phone booking fee so I just disputed it. Waiting for verdict.
I didn’t accept any refund from them out of fear that it would constitute an agreement to forfeit the $25, was that wise?

Quick question, flights on Brussels US/Israel booked on Travelocity. Brussels said deal with Travelocity (and now no longer answers the phone), Travelocity (only returned call the day of the flight) said Brussels is only offering rebooking and then sent an email with rebooking offer.

My credit card was very cooperative in reversing the charges (at least temporarily)…

Should I still file a DOT complaint?

Thanks Dan!

My round trip flight was united from IL to US and Austrian from US to IL. My Austrian flight was cancelled so I cancelled my united flight. Anything I can do?

Frontier refuses refunds as well. I booked January this year. I cancelled it myself, my decision not to fly because of pandemic.and cruise trip was cancelled as well. Frontier offered to flight credit 90 days. That’s all they could offer. I want refund.

Jet blue refunded me today for a cancelled flight (after I told them they legally had to based on this post! Ty)

Booked a turkish flight tlv to ewr through student universe, as of now they’re only issuing a credit, hopefully I’ll get a refund

Southwest refused a refund on a cancelled flight. They automatically rebooked me instead. I called and asked for a refund which they refused. I had a flight coming up in Aug so I just moved the funds to that flight but still…

I booked my airfare thru a travel agent because they had much better rates and availability vs booking directly w/ the airline. I guess they buy tickets in advance, in bulk. Half my credit card was charged under the airline and half (which was the fee) charged under the TA company. I’m getting a refund because the flight has been cancelled, but the refund from the TA is being refused. They are only offering a credit. Are TA required to also give me a refund?

Was booked Turkish to Israel with Chase ultimate rewards points and balance on Sapphire Reserve. Chase says that Turkish is offering flight credit so that is what they are doing. The credit is useless – it is specific to the named passenger for the amount of the ticket and travel must be completed by December, so it won’t cover us for next Pesach and if we fly at a cheaper time of year we lose the balance and can’t use it for another family member. I said DOT requires refunds and Chase supervisor said that a flight credit counts as a refund. Is this accurate?

Air Tahiti Nui is refusing to refund ticket prices. Offering instead a credit that is good for less than one year from the date of travel (instead, they are offering 1 year from when they cancelled it 3/31).

They are citing their Conditions of Carraige “11.6.3 The Carrier may refuse to refund a ticket if the Carrier’s failure to provide carriage in accordance with the contract of carriage is due to a government security directive.”

I have filed a complaint with the DOT.

I had tickets on El-Al for March 19 at 6:00pm. ElAL cancelled that flight and rebooked me on 9:50 pm flight. I booked and paid thru Chase points. Chase will not give me a refund (neither points or dollars). They say I can only get that through ElAl (even though they are aware of the DOT law, that only applies to the airline). They said the best they can do for me is to send me an email confirming that I have a credit for one year from my date of purchase.
Any point in trying to get through to EL-Al for a refund?

What happens if I cancelled my flight prior to the airline cancelling – am I still eligible for a refund?

I followed the excellent pieces of advice here and I got full cash refund: flight to Puerto Rico, one of the flight legs was rescheduled by 2.5 hours, used this to ask cash refund. Airline = American, booking via Chase Travel.

ElAL canceled our children’s flight from Israel to US and back.
I filed a complaint with them – but they are closed their customer care.
I am owed $5200
I also filed a dispute with my credit card Barclays Mastercard hoping to get credit since I paid for these tickets in February.

Thanks, I just filed a complaint with the US DOT.

ELAL will eventually return and credit I hope & pray.

Brussels cancelled our flight. Got out tickets using chase sapphire points. Brussels offered us a voucher. I called Chase and they told me since it was nonrefundable ticket all we can get is a voucher. They cancelled we did not. How do I get the points back?.

Just an fyi.. its been over 21 days and while Delta mentioned they would issue an refund, they have yet to process one.. and cannot provide me a timeline on when the refund will occur. I have to believe that most people still have not received any compensation back from the airlines yet.

I booked my tickets through Amex Traval. And Amex Traval is not letting me dispute it any suggestions?

I have just filed a complaint with DOT for Air Serbia not responding to my requests for a refund on my scheduled flights to Israel that were canceled by the airline. Awaiting now their response.