New airline refund policy might impact your holiday travel plans – WNKY News 40 Television

With the holiday travel season less than a month away, airlines now have a new way of handling compensation for canceled or significantly delayed flights.

Under the new policy, airlines must provide a cash refund to passengers within a week if their domestic flight is delayed by three hours or more or six hours or more on an international flight. But that’s only if the passenger does not accept alternate travel options.
The refund policy also covers a change to your arrival or departure airport or added connections.

Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg spoke on the new policy, saying, “When an airline knows that all, instead of just a few, of the passengers on a canceled flight are likely to actually get their money back it gives them a different set of reasons to put in the investment and the realistic scheduling that makes those cancellations less likely to happen to begin with.”

The trade group representing U.S. airlines says its members support the automatic refund rule and are happy to accommodate customers with a refund when they choose not to be rebooked.