You booked a 5 p.m. departure because you cannot leave work before 2. A week before the trip, the airline moves your flight to 2 p.m. and offers no later alternative in its app. For a domestic itinerary covered by U.S. Department of Transportation rules, that three-hour earlier departure qualifies as a significant change: if…
Your flight is canceled. The airline offers another flight tomorrow, but home—or your destination—is only a few hours away by car. Renting a car and leaving the airport may get you there much faster. Just do not assume the airline will pay for the rental. In the United States, a cancellation or significant delay can…
Your airplane is at the gate. Nothing appears to be broken. The weather has cleared. Then the airline announces that the flight is canceled because the crew has “timed out.” It can sound like an excuse, but crew duty limits are real safety rules. Pilots and flight attendants cannot simply keep working indefinitely because a…
Your flight has been delayed until tomorrow morning. You have a hotel room, but your change of clothes, toothbrush and everything else you packed are sitting in a checked suitcase somewhere behind the airport walls. Can you simply ask the airline to give it back? Sometimes. But a checked bag does not remain parked at…
You finally get off the plane, make your way to baggage claim, and wait. The carousel slows down, the crowd thins out, and eventually it stops. Everyone else seems to have left with their luggage, while yours is nowhere to be found. This is one of the most frustrating ways to start a trip. Your…
Your flight is supposed to land in Boston. Instead, the captain announces that the plane is diverting to Providence. The obvious question is, “What compensation do I get for a diverted flight?” But that is usually the wrong place to start. A diversion describes what happened to the airplane. It does not tell you whether…