Refunds

Check your flight refund eligibility

Since October 2024, US airlines must automatically refund a flight they cancelled or significantly changed, a checked-bag fee when the bag arrives significantly late, or a fee for an extra you paid for and never got — no request required, on any fare type, regardless of why the disruption happened. Answer a few questions below to see where your situation falls under that rule.

What happened

I accepted the airline’s rebooking, alternative flight, or voucher

Your refund position

Eligible for an automatic refund

A flight the airline cancelled, with no rebooking or voucher accepted, is refundable regardless of the reason for the cancellation — weather included — and regardless of fare type, even a nonrefundable ticket.
The refund must be automatic: the airline is required to issue it without the traveller having to request it.
It is owed in the original form of payment, within 7 business days for a credit card purchase or 20 calendar days for any other form of payment.

Based on 14 CFR Part 260, DOT’s automatic refund rule (compliance required since October 28, 2024). General information, not legal advice — if an airline refuses a refund the rule requires, file a complaint at transportation.gov/airconsumer.

What this does not cover. A delay you still flew through, below the significant-change threshold, is not a federal refund trigger — only a cancellation or a significant change is. This tool also does not cover EU261 (a separate rule for flights departing the EU on an EU carrier), state consumer-protection law, travel insurance claims, or the meal and hotel commitments individual US airlines publish in their own customer service plans for lengthy controllable delays — those are voluntary and vary by carrier, so check the airline’s own plan for what it promises.

If a refund is owed and the airline refuses to pay it

The rule requires the airline to issue the refund on its own; a traveller should not have to fight for it.

The refund is supposed to arrive automatically, without a request, within 7 business days for a credit card purchase or 20 calendar days for any other form of payment. If an airline refuses a refund this rule requires, the next step is a formal complaint to the DOT office that enforces it — not a second request to the airline.

File a complaint at transportation.gov/airconsumer →

Source: 14 CFR Part 260, DOT’s automatic refund rule (compliance required since October 28, 2024) · General information about a published federal rule, not legal advice about your specific situation.