If You Flew Recently An Airline May Owe You Money, Here’s How To Make Sure You Get It
Frontier, Air India, El Al Israel, TAP Portugal, Avianca, and Aeromexico should soon be issuing airline refunds to customers.
An airline might owe you compensation if you booked a flight in the last three years. The U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) announced on Monday that six airlines were fined a whopping total of $7.25 million and are being pushed to issue an additional $622 million in passenger refunds. These penalties help ensure that airlines will pay required refunds to the “hundreds of thousands of passengers” who had their flights canceled or significantly altered during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond.
Many customers have waited months or even years for refunds, a trend that Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg thinks is not only immoral but illegal. Buttigieg said on Monday, “It shouldn’t take enforcement action from (USDOT) to get airlines to pay the funds they’re required to pay.” Buttigieg hopes the penalties enforced against the six airlines will encourage others to pay customers what they’re owed without government involvement.
The six airlines penalized are Frontier, Air India, El Al Israel, TAP Portugal, Avianca, and Aeromexico. The airlines argued that due to the travel restrictions put in place during COVID-19, they received a flood of refund requests, and the volume of submissions made it impossible to issue refunds in a timely manner. However, USDOT disagreed and pointed to other airlines that were able to provide refunds without excessive delay or the government forcing their hand.
If you think you’re owed a refund, check your bank account histories, and make sure that it wasn’t already issued; refunds can be easy to miss in a long list of bank transactions. If you haven’t received your refund yet, sit tight—you shouldn’t have to do anything since the government is forcing the airlines to refund those customers. If you still haven’t received your refund after a month or so, it might be worth your time to reach out to your airline’s customer service line.
The travel industry struggled significantly during COVID-19 and still isn’t seeing the overall profits that it was in 2019 and before. While airlines have taken a big hit in the last few years, they’re still legally obligated to provide promised refunds for customers. A three-year grace period is more than enough time to take care of those customers affected by COVID-19 flight changes and cancellations.
While fining these six airlines is a significant first step to ensuring that all travelers are given what they’re owed when flights are cancelled or changes, it’s still only six airlines. According to Business Standard, USDOT has said that it is investigating other carriers as well. USDOT did give some airlines a credit for nonrefundable tickets against the penalties, given the extenuating circumstances of the pandemic.
Airlines can be notoriously difficult for customers to work with, making it difficult to change or cancel flights or receive compensation when doing so. With Buttigieg at the head of the Transportation department, it looks like travelers can expect more protection and safeguarding from the government. Be on the lookout for a refund if you’re owed one—it might finally be on the way!
