Airlines are required to give passengers refunds when their flight is canceled. Now, thanks to a new U.S. Department of Transportation rule, those refunds must be made without delay.
“Passengers deserve to get their money back when an airline owes them—without headaches or haggling,” Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg wrote in a post on X. “Today, our automatic refund rule goes into full effect. Airlines are required to provide prompt cash refunds without passengers having to ask.”
Previously, some airlines offered passengers vouchers for future travel and discouraged them from requesting a refund. But regulations require airlines to refund the price of the ticket when a flight is canceled or “significantly delayed.”
The Transportation Department graphic below describes other rule changes affecting refunds:
The Transportation Department proposed the new rules in April to speed up refunds, increase transparency and crack down on junk fees.