Troubleshooters: What to do if your flight gets cancelled
The summer travel season is almost upon us and as we've seen recently, even if you have a ticket getting to your destination isn't always easy.
Remember this video showing chaos erupting after all those flights were cancelled by Spirit Airlines a few weeks ago?
The video is from early May, when Spirit airline cancelled bout 300 flights in a seven-day period. These are irate customers in Fort Lauderdale.
Right around the same time, cheerleaders and their families in Doylestown were scheduled to fly Spirit for a year-end competition in Orlando.
"We happened to just check in for our flight tomorrow and it showed cancelled," said Maria Porreca from Perkasie, Pennsylvania.
You can imagine their reaction. And when they tried to get refunds they were not offered any compensation.
"Once we got off the phone with them, we got the exact same email from them saying the refund was $0 dollars," she said. Adding, "On top of that, it's going to cost us $1,000 to $1,200 more because we had to rebook our flights," said Mark McTague, Victory Vipers Training Center co-owner.
The good news is, after the Troubleshooters contacted Spirit, we got this email from the airline:
"Thanks for bringing this to our attention. We apologize for any inconvenience to our customers. Spirit is offering refunds or rebooking customers impacted on other available flights, including other airlines. As for the customers you mentioned, we will certainly reimburse them for the additional airfare price difference."
Unfortunately, no US law or regulation specifies what an airline has to do if it cancels a flight - meaning an airline is not required to compensate you if a domestic flight is canceled.
So if this does happen to you, get online immediately and find one or two solutions that you can present to the airline. Also, call immediately while you wait in line for an agent.
If you find a flight on a different airline, ask your original airline if it will "endorse your ticket to the new carrier." But remember - it's not required to say yes.
Also - consider the TripIt Pro app. For $49 dollars a year, among other things, it will help you locate alternate flights and rebook.
To try to avoid the hassle of a cancellation in the first place, here are some tips from our friends at Forbes.com:
- Fly in the morning
- Don't fly into a small airport on a regional plane if you're flying out of a major hub airport
- Fly direct and certainly avoid connecting through cities with inclement weather
- Check a route's on-time performance before booking on sites like FlightStats.com
For more information on passenger rights, CLICK HERE.
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