My son was flying home from a study abroad trip to China on American Airlines. He flew from Beijing to Dallas and was to then fly from Dallas to Columbus. This was a day when there were severe storms moving through the mid-west. His 10:15 pm flight from Dallas to Columbus eventually got cancelled but only after the flight was delayed multiple times. He called me at 11:30 his time to let me know while he was standing in line to talk to an airline representative to understand his options.
I immediately went online to look at his options and there were no good ones on American - there were no direct flights from Dallas to Columbus available and the 1-stops that were available all left pretty late the next day.
I booked him a different flight on Delta knowing that we might just have to eat that cost.
American did NOT provide any sort of hotel accommodations (although truthfully I’m not sure what would have been available as I called around and the hotels closest to the airport were all booked) so he spend the night in the airport
American said he could get a refund since he was NOT taking the Dallas to Columbus leg they were offering. The refund came and it was $100. The total cost of the ticket was almost $1700 so I was expect a bit more than $100 as a refund.
Does anyone know what the airline is required to give and how they calculate the eligible refund for one leg of a multi-leg round trip flight?
I can certainly call them but if the likelihood of getting any additional money is slim I’d rather not waste my time. thanks.
If it’s weather related then you are really out of luck. When my kid’s connection at EWR to Ithaca was cancelled due to weather, she was on her own. We had to pay for her hotel room, and she wasn’t even put on the first flight out, she was put on the next flight with available seat. You are lucky they are willing to give you 100. 1700 was for a flight from China to Columbus. I would assume from Dallas to Columbus was fairly inexpensive.
Interestingly it’s not actually clear that it was weather related. And shortly after this happened my husband showed me an article about Airlines threatening to sue or actually suing a mechanics union for what they claimed was intentional slow downs on repair work that was affecting their flight schedules. But I doubt we have any way of definitively knowing the cause of the cancellation.
Yes, weather is one of those things that airlines get a free pass on when it comes to uncompensated delays and cancellations.
Sometimes the airline will be willing to ticket you on another carrier - it really depends on which carriers have agreements and the route involved. They will rarely offer that up as an option though, you need to explicitly ask for it.
I have never heard of anyone successfully challenging an airline’s claim of problems due to weather (which they don’t have to compensate).
I was able to request and get from the airline (United in my case), a written official reason for my delay. I needed the document to turn in to the CCard company that provided trip delay and cancellation insurance because I booked thru their CC.
I also had to specify and show what their airline did and didn’t compensate. Airline DID give me a voucher for a night of lodging and also gave H and me each a $30 voucher for food. Our food exceeded those amounts and we submitted the paperwork and got the extra $100+ in meal compensation for the 20+ hour delay reimbursed.
If you used a CCard to purchase the original ticket, see if it offers any free travel insurance coverage. Good luck!
Last Wednesday I had a flight from SFO to ORD which got delayed for 4 hours because of mechanical issues. Then the flight got cancelled and everyone got moved to a different plane. The subsequent flight ultimately got moved back to the next day because the pilots didn’t want to fly the new plane apparently. I was debating on whether to take the hotel or Uber/rent a car to go back home. I made the wrong decision - decided to stay overnight at a hotel (paid by United) that wound up being 30 min from my house. I literally did not get into the hotel until 4.5 hours later, 2:30 am, after the flight was cancelled. The new flight time was 10:00am. We rarely check in our luggage, but because I wanted to “maximize” my benefits in my new United Explorer card, yep our luggage was checked in. So, nothing for the night, no change of clothes. I also lost my Power Bank which housekeeping never found.
Compensation - overnight hotel at a 3.5 star hotel, $30 to each person for food, a $150 voucher to each person for use for a future flight, and an additional $150 per person for an additional flight. Plus the rebooked flight was quite empty so we had 3 seats for the 2 of us. Oh, United did provide us with a toiletries kit and a blanket. And lots of free snacks and water while we were waiting in line for 3.5 hours to get our hotel vouchers. FWIW this was a Basic Economy flight that was $250 per person.
The hotel in Chicago did charge me for the lost night, which I am trying to fight.
You have little recourse if you didn’t try to get the airline to fix it before you booked him on another carrier. Usually they’ll put you on a later flight, sometimes next day. I’ve had no luck with US airlines getting vouchers for hotels or anything, but usually there are pretty cheap hotels near airports. My kid once missed a connection due to weather in Dallas when visiting grad schools. The airline put her on a next day flight, and I helped her get a hotel.
Did you or he reserve his original flight with a CC that comes with some travel protections? You may be surprised to find that he is partially covered that way. My D spent a night at EWR and the CC reimbursed us for the meals and toiletries she charged. Of course, it’s small potatoes compared with booking a new flight but you never know.
My kid had a terrible travel trip a few years ago.
She was flying Southwest to CA via Midway. Thunderstorm forecast at Midway and all flights were cancelled…ALL. She slept on a cot in the airport. SW could not get her to CA in time for the event she was attending…so she flew Delta. She canceled the SW rebooking and would have just saved the points for future travel. BUT she is assertive. She called them and made it very clear that they couldn’t get her to her CA event. They refunded her the money…for the whole ticket to CA, even though she had gotten part way there. I think this was just lucky, frankly.
On the way back, her flight was delayed…and she was flying via Ohare on United. She clearlynwas going to miss her connection so they rerouted her someplace else. Well…that flight also got delayed…and she missed her connection. Their fault. She got to OHare and was handed a voucher for hotel, transportation to and from, and food, and she was already rebooked by them on a morning flight to here. Again…I think she just hit it lucky.
I was supposed to fly to Dallas on Saturday night, and my flight got cancelled. It was due to weather, so I got nada. Had to get a hotel room and fly on the rebooked flight at 5:00 am yesterday morning.
I would definitely send American customer service an email, requesting what you want, describing the situation and expressing your displeasure, particularly if you or your son are frequent fliers. Weather related incidents do not require them to give you hotel reimbursement, and there have been severe storms in the central US lately, so it’s likely that it was a legitimate weather cancellation.
American does book customers with other carriers, so it is possible that if you or your son had specifically asked to be booked on that Delta flight, they might have done so, but who knows? You can always ask, though I understand just wanting to take care of it yourself. Good luck, hope you get something more.
We were flying back on American on a trip that required a connecting flight. A delay on the first flight made it so that we would likely miss the connecting flight. There were no other flights that evening to get to our destination.
Though the weather was just fine in our cities, the aircraft that was delayed was caught in bad weather, therefore the delay. No overnight vouchers because it was “an act of god” situation.
Acc to DH who travels a lot, there is not much in consumer protection in this regard. It’s all according to airline contract. We had to talk to various agents to get American to place us on another airline’s flight that got us within a couple of hours to our destination. We rented a car and drove to our destination. We needed to get there that night because of an obligation early the next morning.
American’s company policy was to put us on the next flight getting us to original destination. Or refund our tickets. However, they would have placed us on any American flight with open seats getting us close to our destination. There were none. It was really a matter of discretion and a nice CS agent that got us on a flight on another airline. They did not have to do so even though that flight had open seats.
Many airline delays can be blamed on weather, because many are caused by weather at the micro level.
However, at the macro level, weather delays occur because some airports are scheduled for best-case weather, but must reduce the rate of landings during non-best-case weather. Unfortunately, non-best-case weather can be the more common case during some seasons. Since airplanes are used for many flights per day, a weather delay on the airplane’s first flight may affect all later flights by that airplane, even between airports with no weather issues.
As bummed out as I was for my day trip to turn into an overnight (had to spring for a hotel and some pj’s, toothbrush, etc.), I couldn’t really be mad at AA. The weather in Dallas was terrible and I was booked on the last flight from my location. Don’t know what else they could have done. My return flight the next day was scheduled so early because bad weather was again supposed to hit Dallas later in the morning. I sucked it up and got up at 3:00 am in order to get to the airport, return my rental, and make the flight.
I was stuck in Dallas with your son, I believe. All flights cancelled. I was flying in from London and most other passengers on my flight got rebooked for the next flight to their destination automatically. I didn’t (long, sad story for another day), so found myself a live person and asked for help. It was late enough and I was tired enough I didn’t think to ask for a flight on another carrier—you can do that and be assertive and they will often put you on one if that is the best way out.
The next flight for me was 24 hours later. Ugh. I could have tried my luck with stand by, but decided not to. I wanted certainty.
Because I am an older woman with a credit card, I got a room in a hotel at the airport. The first one I tried was booked, but I persevered. I asked for late check out the next day so I could hang out in my room and not the airport as long as possible. I bought a book and took a lot of walks until my flight. (Terminal D is the best place to hang out IMO. Better shops and restaurants, less crowded, and quieter. Sometimes you can buy a pass to the lounge and hang out there, but not this time.)
There is a website called sleeping in airports that has advice on what to do if you get stuck and are not an older woman with a credit card who can get a hotel room. I used it to nap in Asian airports a few years ago.
I’m sorry. It is frustrating. Weather delays don’t get you anything but rebooked on a later flight.
Thanks for all the replies. I knew when I booked his flight on Delta that we might just have to eat the whole cost. But as someone else posted I wanted the certainty of knowing he’d get a flight. There were many other passengers in front of him in line so who knows what flights would have even been left by the time he got to the front of the line.
Traveling can suck and I just felt so bad that he’d been on such a long flight from Beijing to Dallas and was now stuck in the Dallas airport so late at night feeling like he’d never get home.
When my kid was stuck at Midway and flew Delta to CA, it was $275. We told her to go for it. Knew we could at least Bank the Southwest points for future travel!
I think the problem is the OP can point to what the replacement ticket cost but not what percentage of the original ticket from China was attributed to the final leg. The cost from China to Dallas might have been the same as the portion from China to home airport. When I went to China, the United fare Den-ORD-Beijing was cheaper than ORD-Beijing, so to them there was no value in the final leg, O’Hare to Denver, so nothing to refund.
I’d try to get AA to toss in some frequent flier miles. They don’t like to give cash, but they are more willing to part with miles.
Yes, exactly. I probably would have done the same thing. If he was on Delta, I would have called their diamond medallion line and they would have magically fixed it in the way requested, but anyone else? Don’t have status on other airlines, and it would have been a tedious chore, with likely an unsatisfactory resolution, with my exhausted kid stuck at an airport. Sometimes it’s worth the price to just get it done.