The US Department of Transportation said Friday's outage was controllable.
That means consumers may be entitled to reimbursements for hotels
and food, but there are things you should know to
make sure you get what you're owed.
And stuck out of town when the crowd strike.
Outage halted several airlines last week.
And in the mass confusion, travel experts say you may
not have known what those airlines should have been doing
for you.
What are your rates?
The Department of Transportation has ruled this as a a
controllable event, so airlines are on the hook to get
you home if you're currently on a trip or to
find you an alternate flight to get you to your
destination.
And they are supposed to, in most cases, pay for
reasonable expenses such as lodging and food along the way.
If an airline did not automatically cover your hotel, food
or other transportation, make sure your listed expenses are reasonable.
The airline can reject your request or only cover a
partial amount.
If you spent too much money on a luxury hotel
or black car, save your receipts.
That's always a good idea to be able to submit.
Check out the travel credit card or the credit card
that you use to book your travel with Katie Nastro
from the travel website Going.
But many of those travel credit cards may be able
to help compensate you quickly.
Dan Green from the travel insurance company Faye says travel
insurance would also cover many of those expenses if you
don't want to take your chances with the airline.
He says Flyers also need to be thinking ahead.
Just having enough things on you that you can go
a day or two if things go sideways can really
make a huge difference in your sanity and happiness.
And here's a tip to put money in your pocket.
Whether the event is deemed controllable, like crowd strike, or
if it's an uncontrollable weather event, USDOT says if your
domestic flight is delayed over three hours or an international
flight delayed six hours or more, you get your cash
back.
You are entitled to request a refund for your unused
ticket back to your method of payment or get rebooked
on a new flight.
Good advice before you submit receipts for any expenses.
Remember, many airlines have limits on what they will cover
and some have made different commitments to the government about
what they may or may not pay for.
You can view the commitments of each airline on our
website, abc7chicago.com.
Rob Judy.
Reimbursement rules are not mandated by law, but the airlines
do make those commitments.
Something new that I learned, so it's good to do
your homework.