Just in time for Labor Day travel, the US Department of Transportation is launching a website with information about compensation for flight cancellations and delays.
As reported by travel site Afar, the DOT plans to release an interactive dashboard on its Aviation Consumer Protection website by Friday, Sept. 2—the start of the busy holiday weekend.
The tool—described in a letter from Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, published by Afar—aims to help travelers find "easy-to-read, comparative summer information" on amenities each of the large US airlines provide "when the cause of a cancelation or delay was due to circumstances within the airline's control."
Information (like how to access refunds) is based on individual companies' Customer Service Plans, each of which will be directly linked from the DOT website. Government regulations currently require domestic airlines to offer refunds for canceled flights.
What customers are owed for delays, however, is harder to discern. Moving forward, the agency asks that, at a minimum, airlines provide meal vouchers for delays of three-plus hours, and lodging for passengers forced to wait overnight.
"The level of disruption Americans have experienced this summer is unacceptable," Buttigieg wrote in a message to JetBlue Airways CEO Robin Hayes. In the first six months of 2022, nearly a quarter of domestic flights were delayed and more than 3% canceled. "As you know," he continued, "these aren't just numbers, these are missed birthday parties, graduations, time with loved ones and important meetings."
Early this month, the Department of Transportation proposed a set of rules that would provide travelers additional protection if airline schedule changes upend their travel.
More than 12.5 million people are scheduled to fly from US airports over the long Labor Day weekend, according to online travel service Hopper, which tipped a 20% increase in round-trip holiday airfare costs over pre-pandemic prices.