Air Travel Rights What Passengers Should Know

Air travel can be a pleasant experience when things go smoothly, but when unexpected snags arise, the journey might start to feel tiring and expensive. And then there’s the confusion of trying to figure out what resources you’re entitled to as you deal with delays, cancellations, involuntary bumps, missing luggage and other kinds of disruptions.

“I think passengers today are a lot more fluent in their rights than they were five or 10 years ago thanks, in part, to how many large-scale meltdowns the industry has seen in recent years — situations that, unfortunately, have put millions of travelers in the position of having to figure out what they’re owed,” Sean Cudahy, an aviation reporter at travel website The Points Guy, told HuffPost.

“That said, the policies when it comes to refunds, reimbursements, compensation, vouchers and the like can be exhausting to keep track of, and what an airline is on the hook for may differ significantly based on whether a flight disruption is due to something like bad weather, or is ‘controllable’ — the latter meaning the airline’s responsibility — owed to something like maintenance, staffing or, as we saw in recent months, an IT glitch at a third-party vendor contracted by the airline.”

So despite increasing awareness, there remains a great deal of confusion around what air passengers are entitled to in certain scenarios.

“Air passengers have different rights across the world, and awareness varies from region to region,” said Eric Napoli, the vice president of legal strategy at the company AirHelp. “Currently, U.S. national law does not offer much protection for avoidable travel disruptions, but that’s changing. As new policies are enacted, we expect to see a greater awareness among U.S. air passengers, similar to that experienced in the [European Union].”

So what exactly are our rights as we navigate the air travel experience? Read on for seven important ones to keep in mind.

“When your flight is canceled, delayed or overbooked, it’s important to make sure you understand your rights and when you are owed compensation ― which can depend on the departure location and airline,” Napoli said. “For now, in the U.S., airlines are not required to compensate passengers when flights are delayed or cancelled ― compensation is only required if passengers are denied boarding from an oversold flight.”

If you’re bumped from a flight, you are…