DOT Announces Rule Requiring Automatic Refunds of Airline Tickets and Service Fees for flights that are canceled or delayed more than 3 hours domestically and 6 hours internationally
Uh oh, airlines not gonna be happy about this, why won’t anyone think of the shareholders!!!
Don’t worry, they’ll just simultaneously increase the cost of the tickets to cover the cost and then some. The shareholders will always eat.
We have something similar in Canada. One of the budget airlines screwed us out of it by not declaring the delays past 2 hours 55 minutes. The flight ended up being delayed by 4 hours, but when I went for my refund they pulled out the declared delay.
Huh?
So the flight was scheduled for 12:00. They kept announcing that it was delayed to 1:00, 2:00, and then at 2:55 they stopped announcing new delays. The flight ended up boarding at 3:30, but because they didn’t announce the delay every customer service rep said that I wasn’t entitled to compensation.
Why does it matter whether they announced it or not, if the flight took off more than 3 and a half hours after its scheduled departure, is that not more than a 3 hour delay by definition?