As Delta Flight Cancellations Continue, Here Are Your Passenger Rights

MINNEAPOLIS — As Delta Air Lines struggles to get back on track after canceling hundreds of flights over the weekend, customers are wondering how they can get refunds if they’re stranded at the airport.

The airline is under investigation by the U.S. Department of Transportation as it continued to cancel hundreds of flights Tuesday, five days after a flawed software update to the cybersecurity system Crowd strike They destroyed Microsoft systems all over the world.

In total, Delta has canceled more than 5,500 flights since the outage began Friday morning, according to aviation data provider Cirium. As of 10 a.m. Tuesday, Delta had canceled 446 flights and delayed 636 for the day, far outpacing the cancellations of any other U.S. airline, according to data from flight tracker FlightAware. Of those 446 canceled flights, 67 impacted Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport.

Travel experts say keeping a log of expenses is one of the best ways to increase your chances of getting reimbursed.

“Keep all your receipts and submit them all to Delta — even if you’re not sure they’ll cover them, try to charge them every penny,” said Kyle Potter, editor-in-chief of Thrifty Traveler.

In addition to keeping receipts, Potter recommended reviewing any travel insurance a customer may have purchased, or travel credit card benefits a customer may have used.

He added that refunds would take time; Southwest Airlines took “weeks, if not months,” he said, to process all requests following the cancellation. collapse at Christmas 2022 which left more than 2 million travelers stranded.

“Travelers who are hoping Delta will help them are going to have to be patient,” Potter said. “But don’t let that discourage you.”

Following the Southwest Airlines fiasco, the US Department of Transportation announced a series of new rules to give passengers more rights and flexibility.

The first rule requires airlines to promptly refund the full price of a ticket to customers when flights are disrupted or significantly delayed. The rule also clarifies what constitutes a “delay”: three hours for a domestic flight and six hours for an international flight. Previously, this decision was left to the discretion of the airline.

However, there is no date yet for the entry into force of these rules.

Besides Delta, United Airlines has been the worst performing airline since the CrowdStrike outage began, canceling nearly 1,500 flights in total.