Millions of Americans are getting ready to travel back to their hometowns to see their families for the holidays. This has made everyone more worried about flights that get canceled.

The Biden Administration has made a new rule that requires airlines to automatically give cash refunds for flights that are canceled or significantly delayed. This is good news for tired travelers.

The new rule, which started this week, is meant to make it easier for people to file complaints about canceled flights. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said, “Passengers deserve to get their money back when an airline owes them—without headaches or haggling.”

The new rule for flight refunds

Naturally, not all situations will call for a refund, but in April, the U.S. Department of Transportation released the rules that would govern the new rule of automatic refunds and spell out the specific situations in which airlines must give refunds without passengers having to ask for them.

This new rule that makes the rule the same for all airlines is a big step forward in customer satisfaction.

Before this new rule, each airline had its own set of rules and policies that said when a passenger could get a refund. The DOT said this meant that each airline could decide on its own whether to offer compensation or not. It also made it hard for “passengers to know or assert their refund rights.”

In this new era of flight travel, customers will automatically get their money back if an airline cancels or significantly changes a flight, significantly delays their checked bags, or fails to provide the extra services they paid for. If the airline doesn’t follow the rules, it will be fined.

If these rules seem a bit broad, it’s because we haven’t gone into enough detail yet. For instance, when flights are canceled or changed in big ways, airlines don’t have to offer automatic refunds right away.

They can offer to move people to a later time slot, give them vouchers for other transportation, or give them travel credits. But if a passenger doesn’t want these changes, they must be given a full refund.

According to the DOT, a “significant change” in a flight is when the time it leaves or arrives changes by more than three hours within the United States and six hours between countries.

Changes in the airports where the flight leaves or arrives, the number of connections, or the types of connections are all included in this definition because they can have a big effect on the passenger’s plans and they may not want to stick to them.

Along with that, the rules cover situations where a passenger is moved to a lower level of service or when flights are changed to ones that are harder for a disabled person to get to or use. These cases also deserve compensation because the flight experience that was bought and the one that was received are not the same.

Lost luggage is another issue that airlines haven’t dealt with well over the past few years. Damaged or mishandled luggage is another common complaint. But the most outrageous problem has been being late with luggage arrival.

A new rule says that if a passenger files a report about their mishandled baggage, they can get their checked bag fee back if it is not delivered within 12 hours of their domestic flight arriving at the gate.

Because of time differences and the lack of direct flights to some destinations every day, this deadline has been pushed back for international flights. However, passengers will still be able to get their money back if the bag doesn’t arrive between 15 and 30 hours after their international flight arrives at the gate, depending on how long the flight was.

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