Back in early April, the U.S. Department of Transportation warned airlines that they were obligated to refund all passengers whose flight plans were canceled or significantly changed by the COVID-19 crisis.
The warning, which was given as an enforcement notice, carried significant weight. It was issued after thousands of complaints were submitted by travelers who were being denied refunds and instead offered travel vouchers or credits, when no one knows what form travel will take when the world is safe enough to actually resume traveling. The requirement for passenger refunds in the case of emergency cancellations is a long-standing DOT policy, but airlines have been trying hard to wiggle around it to keep cash on hand to weather this disaster.
Now, just over a month later, the DOT has been forced to issue a second warning on the matter. More than 25,000 complaints about passenger refunds in March and April are ample evidence that the airlines have not been complying. (Ordinary complaint numbers typically hover around 1,500 per month.)
“The Department has received an unprecedented volume of complaints from passengers and is examining this issue closely to ensure that airlines’ policies and practices conform to DOT’s refund rules,” U.S. Secretary of Transportation Elaine L. Chao said in a statement on May 12, 2020. “The department is asking all airlines to revisit their customer service policies and ensure they are as flexible and considerate as possible to the needs of passengers who face financial hardship during this time.”
“Cancellation” and “significant change,” are both in the DOT language about required passenger refunds, but neither is hemmed in with a strict definition, so airlines have been choosing to interpret both clauses in creative ways—ways the DOT has called “unfair or deceptive.”
If you have been denied a refund for air travel canceled by your airline due to anything related to COVID-19, please use the DOT’s online form to make a complaint.
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