Are you talking about for flights specifically or for a full trip including accommodation etc? I generally find that domestic airlines are flexible enough that that’s not necessary. Or I book refundable if it’s not too much extra. From my recollection of the chase sapphire benefits, you only have to pay any part of the trip (such as hotel) with the card for that to kick in too? The caveats are also numerous enough that for expensive trips with non-refundable elements I usually take out separate travel insurance.
Primarily flight costs, but also related expenses due to necessary flight changes (weather, mechanical, illness, missed connections due to flight timing, etc.) I’ve known others who had to cancel flights (due to illness) OR had to stay overnight or longer when flights were cancelled or connections missed. I believe their Chase cards covered these expenses. I was wondering if airline cards do the same.
These are usually airline faults (assuming connections booked on same ticket) and the airlines should cover these. Has happened to us a few times and the airlines covered hotels and meals and sometimes other expenses for these events. (KLM notably gave us little bags with sleep shirts and toiletries too). Illness should be a covered event under insurance, so yes would be interesting to see if airline cards cover that. We have used credit card insurance a couple of times to buy clothing when late flights meant that we made the connection but our bags didn’t.
The issue with keeping the card is - if you don’t have it, you can then get again with the sign on bonus. Technically you still can but you might have 10 then. Or I suppose you can get two and drop the older.
Airlines house you if they err but not for weather.
We’ve had an airline house us overnight for a weather delay. Bus to and from the airport hotel with meal vouchers.
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That was generous - not required - and I’ve not seen anyone do it. You got lucky.
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Definitely lucky. My husband’s flight was cancelled by Alaska due to lack of aircraft. He was rescheduled on a flight flying the next morning. No compensation of any sorts. Because he automatically got issued a new ticket.
“Duty of care” is required on flights to/from Europe or with a EU/UK airline (EU 261) whatever the cause of the delay. Not for US airlines going elsewhere.
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I had to fight with United for months before they gave us anything, even though we knew we were eligible. When I threaded to send a note to the German authorities (I can’t remember name of organization) they finally agreed. They wanted to give us airline vouchers, and it took them an additional 90 days or something like that to give us the cash.
Direct flights from Dublin to certain cities (Boston, NY, maybe Chicago?) have you go through passport control in Dublin, essentially making the flight a domestic one. Our connecting flight from Edinburgh got into Dublin just after 4PM, 3 hours late. There were about 20 of us connecting to Boston–Aer Lingus would have held the plane, but since passport control had just closed, holding the plane made no difference.
The 20 of us were herded into a small room, and a rep handed us all boarding passes for the next morning. Explained to us how to use the courtesy phones to book hotels, and how to put in for reimbursement. Reimbursement came within 3 weeks of filing.
THATS what happens if you miss a flight in the EU–laws actually protect the consumer.
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That may be it, the times I was thinking of were KLM and BA (both connecting from the US to elsewhere). (That was when BA lost the old lady at the hotel they put us up at, but that story was on another thread)
Both bused us to and from the hotels and gave us meal vouchers as well, while klm also gave us each a bag with a sleep shirt and toiletries.
As an aside, the Marriott that KLM put us up at referred to us as “stranded travelers” 
(to be fair that’s what we were), but it’s a become a family in-joke.
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Perhaps that is why some airports known for delays and missed connections have hotels basically in the airport.
Denver has a hotel in the airport but bumped passengers aren’t staying there at over $400/night. Nope, there are plenty of low budget hotels down then road.
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Don’t most big airports have hotels very close by? Mostly used for those arriving very late or leaving very early? Having a hotel inside it just takes out one small uncertainty of timing.
The klm overnight was in the midst of the huge weather issues in late
December ..I think it was 2012. NYC was shut down for a blizzard the day before we left, and there were major weather issues in Europe too. (We met a family that had been at Schipohl for 3 days trying to get another flight). The airport hotels at schipohl itself were full, and we were bused to a Marriott in a suburb somewhere. There were a ton of delays, all weather related, and klm was in full gear taking care of its passengers, even to the extent of (we weren’t on US passports then) helping us get an overnight transit visa so we could leave the airport to get to the hotel. ( The equivalent of the CBP office there had a pile of passports they were processing for such visas.) it was not as chaotic as jfk when we left, which looked like something out of an apocalypse movie with people all over the floor, everywhere. Now that I am reading this thread I put two and two together, I understand that probably all those people sleeping on the floor at jfk were flying US carriers.
Some…when Midway shut down because of a thunderstorm that never happened, SW bused my kid and a bunch of other passengers to a hotel almost an hour away. They got there close to midnight. It wasn’t exactly a good experience. My kid got herself booked on a 9:00 am flight to LAX via Minneapolis. That meant leaving the hotel about 7. Let’s just say…it was an awful night.
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I just bought my first SW tickets under the new model. It was relatively painless, and cheaper than other options for where I’m flying next January. I was shocked at the cost, but I verified they were cheapest. And their cheapest tix were already sold old (they just went on sale today). Not sure I would have purchased them anyway, but they went quickly.
I know some people hate SW, but it works well for us.
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I just got SW tickets, too! I was also surprised they were the cheapest. MUCH cheaper than American, which I usually fly to Austin.
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On some recent trips on Southwest, I already noticed a change in boarding since they went from 2 to 0 included checked bags. Getting space in the overhead bins seems to be much more competitive now, and gate agents pre-emptively ask for passengers to check their carry-on bags (at no extra charge) before boarding flights using their older aircraft that have smaller overhead bins (these would be the -700/-800; the newer MAX 7/8 have the larger overhead bins). The boarding and exiting process did seem to be a bit slower.
Since I traveled with only a bag that fits under the seat, I found empty seats near the front even with B or C group boarding passes, because other passengers passed them up due to the overhead bins being full.
When they go to pre-assigned seats, it is likely that the boarding process will get even slower.
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Good to know about the forward rows.
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It’s a train wreck of a move that will come back to bite them after private equity bows out.
There’s no longer differentiation.
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