Most airline conditions of carriage say that published departure and arrival times are estimates, not guarantees, and do not form part of the contract of carriage. That single clause decides whether a disrupted passenger has any contractual claim arising from…

An airline that cancels a mistake fare owes you two separate things: a refund of the ticket price and reimbursement for reasonable, actual, and verifiable out-of-pocket costs you incurred in reliance on the booking. Hotels, visa fees, tour packages, and…

No federal rule requires U.S. airlines to provide meals, hotel rooms, or ground transportation during delays or cancellations. The Department of Transportation says so directly. What carriers do offer comes from voluntary commitments, mostly written into their own contracts of…

U.S. airlines can deliberately sell more tickets than seats because the Department of Transportation permits overbooking as a commercial practice, and each carrier writes that permission into its contract of carriage. In exchange, airlines must follow a fixed legal sequence…

When Spirit Airlines cancels a flight, it cannot put you on another carrier. It has no interline agreements, so its only rebooking options are later Spirit flights. Federal rules guarantee a prompt refund if you decline rebooking, but no regulation…

When a U.S. airline cancels a flight, the contract of carriage is what controls. Across American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, United Airlines, and JetBlue Airways, that contract promises one of two things: rebooking or a refund of unused fare. None…

Under EU261, an airline can avoid paying up to €600 compensation only if it proves two things: the disruption came from an event outside its normal operations and beyond its control, and even taking all reasonable measures could not have…

A delay is compensable under EU261 when it reaches three hours at the final destination and the airline cannot prove, with hard evidence, that an extraordinary circumstance beyond its control caused it. Compensation is fixed at €250, €400, or €600…